


Young World

by JCapasso



Series: The Void [2]
Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 09:15:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 30,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28722705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JCapasso/pseuds/JCapasso
Summary: After the Aether abandoned the void to poison Earth, a small group of survivors went through the only open thinny led by Dwight and McHugh.
Relationships: Duke Crocker/Audrey Parker
Series: The Void [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2105556
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

Dwight dragged his exhausted body up the beach, fully trusting McHugh bringing up the rear to keep everyone together. He wasn’t sure whether the emotional exhaustion or the physical exhaustion was worse. All of the people they’d lost to get this far weighed heavily on his conscience. They’d elected him their leader and he knew better than most as a military man that the leader was the most important to be kept safe, but every person he sent out to find food or fresh water that didn’t come back was another weight on his soul. His duty was to the rest of the group though. The group that now consisted of only kids other than himself and McHugh, and there was no way he was sending kids into that kind of danger. 

The physical exhaustion was just as real though. While all of the kids had full packs, they didn’t have any of the heavy stuff. That was with himself and McHugh. And some of the teenagers, but mostly the two men carried the bulk of the weight. That combined with the fact that neither of them ever slept more than half the night, spending the other half keeping watch, meant that they were both running on fumes. The kids usually managed to get a full night’s sleep at least, but they were much less used to this sort of hardship, so they were just as tired, but they all kept going, safety their only goal. Neither of the men had the heart to tell them that safety was never going to happen. They were just looking for safe enough to survive, and even that was a long shot that was dwindling by the day. 

Dwight stopped in his tracks as he caught sight of the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen, and then started jogging closer to get a better look, a new vigor infusing his body. He didn’t notice everyone else start running too in order to keep up with him as they’d been told to do so many times and when he stopped again he practically had tears in his eyes. “Well I’ll be damned,” he laughed out loud as McHugh came up next to him, leaving the kids clumped behind them both. “Grey Gull. Duke freaking Crocker…I swear the man was a cockroach in a past life,” his laughter bordered on hysteria. 

McHugh raised an eyebrow at his boss who seemed more than a little close to cracking and then looked back at the nervous group of kids and told them, “Wait here. Do /not/ wander around. If something happens, get on that boat and lock yourselves in until someone comes for you.” 

They nodded profusely, too cowed by the horrors of the last six weeks to have any fight left in them and McHugh put a hand on Dwight’s shoulder and pulled him out of earshot of the little ears. He didn’t want them to hear this conversation and get their hopes up if they were about to be dashed. “We can’t be sure he’d appreciate the company,” McHugh pointed out. Duke Crocker had disappeared over fifteen years ago. That kind of isolation in this kind of environment could make anyone crazy and from the stories he’d heard, Duke wasn’t exactly the stable friendly type to begin with. 

“He’ll help us,” Dwight said assuredly. “He might not be happy about it and he might grumble a bit, but he’ll help. He’s a dick, but he’s still a decent guy. He’s not callous enough to leave all these kids to suffer. Hell, he wouldn’t even leave you and me to suffer if he could help it.” 

“Well, you know him better than I do,” McHugh conceded the point. He was more than familiar with people who were dicks but still good people underneath. 

“Besides, if Duke is here that means that at least Audrey Parker and maybe even Nathan Wuornos are here,” Dwight told him. “He would die before he let anything happen to Audrey and so would Nathan. And Audrey would definitely be all for helping us, even if Duke resisted.” 

“Fair enough,” McHugh nodded. “Aside from staking out the boat for who knows how long, do you have any ideas how to find them?” 

“Come on, let’s look around and see if we can find any clues,” Dwight said, motioning the kids forward. “We’re gonna look around here for a while and see if we can find anything else that people might have made, but don’t go into the trees and always stay in sight of each other and us.” 

The kids all nodded and they dispersed, but not very far, to look around the cove. It was about ten minutes before one of the kids yelled, “Here!” 

Everyone rushed over and parted easily for Dwight and McHugh to get through and see. It was what looked like an old raft, tied together with vines and there was a faded message scratched into it. ‘Around the hills. Cave with door,’ it said. “Well that’s pretty clear. Looks like he is up for company,” McHugh said feeling a lot better about this now. At least he’d been up for company at whatever clearly distant time that message had been scrawled. 

“Depending on how far it is, we might even be able to make it there before dark,” Dwight said in relief. 

“And if they don’t have room for everyone?” McHugh pointed out. 

“Then there are plenty of caves back here we can bring them to and figure it out tomorrow,” Dwight said with conviction, getting a nod as McHugh started arranging the kids for travel. 

“Stay close and be ready to get down,” he told the kids. This would be their first time off the beach in weeks. The woods were where people died. The beach was relatively safe as long as they avoided the water. None of them liked the idea of taking the kids into the woods, but leaving them alone was an even worse option as was either of the men going into the forest alone, so they didn’t have much choice. 

They headed around the hills and it didn’t take nearly as long as they’d feared to find a cave with a door. Two of them actually, but they opened the first door and after a quick look around, they were all waved in. “This looks abandoned boss,” McHugh said worriedly. At least there was still a vent in the ceiling above the fire pit so they could make a fire. 

“They’re around here somewhere. That boat looks relatively new. Why don’t we bunk the kids down in here tonight? They should be safe enough with the door closed. If you want to collect some firewood and then get them comfortable, I’ll follow that arrow on the outside of the door and see if I can find them,” Dwight suggested. 

“Are you sure you shouldn’t at least wait until morning? The sun’s already going down fast,” McHugh pointed out. 

“These kids aren’t going to last much longer if we don’t find them some water and preferably even food. We don’t have time to waste,” Dwight told him. He knew that he was being reckless by going tonight, but he had to see. He had to know. 

“All do respect, boss…if anyone’s going it should be me,” he pointed out. 

“They don’t know you,” Dwight pointed out. “It has to be me. Stay with the kids and if I’m not back by midday tomorrow, you know where to start looking.” 

“Okay,” McHugh nodded with a sigh. “But for the record, this is a bad idea.” 

“Your disagreement is noted,” Dwight said, leaving his pack behind so that he could cover more ground…and so that everything inside wouldn’t be lost if he was…and just took his hastily improvised spear along. 

“I’m gonna go get some firewood so we can have little light,” he told them. They didn’t need it for warmth this time of year, but it would get pitch black in the cave once the sun finished going down. It was almost pitch black already. They at least needed some embers to see by with so many people crammed into one small cave. There was barely enough room for everyone to lay down without getting too close to the fire. “I’ll be back very soon. Do not open this door before then.” When he got a sea of nods, he closed the door behind him and went to grab as much as he could. He had two armloads dumped by the door before it was too dark to see anymore and he tore a strip off his almost gone by now undershirt and wrapped it around one end of one of the sticks and pulled out his lighter to get the torch lit before he opened the door. 

He could tell that the kids were terrified sitting in the dark, but he asked some of the older ones to help get the wood inside. He lit a small fire, only using a few pieces for now and kept the torch as he looked around now that there was time. When he noticed what seemed like another door on the far wall, he handed the torch to the oldest of the kids, a fourteen year old girl, and then he pulled it to the side, took the torch back, and checked to make sure it was clear before entering and his jaw dropped at the sight. There were dozens of rolls of animal hides in one corner, piles of bones along the walls, a veritable mountain of sinew in another corner and piles of other things around the room. 

Upon closer look those piles looked to include things like crude versions of axes, saws, bows, arrows, chisels, even broken bone knives. Some of them were of better design than others. Clearly this was where they stored their outdated items as they improved them. Along with other supplies. He didn’t find any food or water though no matter how hard he looked, but that didn’t really surprise him. If they weren’t living here anymore, they wouldn’t store that kind of stuff here. At least, even if they couldn’t find them, this stuff would be more than useful. And hopefully if they ever came back for it, they wouldn’t mind too much. But for now, he would give Dwight a chance to find them first so they could ask politely. He returned to the kids and replaced the door and found everyone already bedded down and half of them already asleep. At least there was a real door on this thing and it seemed secure so even if he couldn’t let himself fully sleep, it was secure enough to doze.


	2. Chapter 2

Duke and Audrey got the twins into bed and then gathered their supplies. A row of bandages, the small pot filled with warmed saltwater, and a chunk of moss. They’d heard the commotion outside and looked out to see one of the young foals go down before the rest of the herd ran off the rat. They only hoped that it wasn’t bad enough that they could save it. They’d lost a few horses here and there to the things, but they’d been able to save as many as they lost and the horses had learned to trust them to help. They hated going out at night, but it wasn’t nearly as bad within the clearing and the horses helped to keep them guarded. 

They both took their bows and arrows and their spears along with the supplies and headed out. They had almost reached the edge of the clearing where the foal was laying surrounded by the other horses when something else caught their eye by the dim moonlight. Was that…a person? Here? Was that even possible? Almost before they even registered the thought, they saw another shape flying through the air at the stumbling man and Audrey had her bow drawn in a split second with a shout of, “Down!” Duke set down the supplies and readied his spear, knowing that if Audrey’s shot didn’t kill it then it would definitely change targets. 

Dwight heard the shout and his instincts had him immediately drop and roll just in time to see and arrow fly through where he’d been a second ago and some kind of animal squeal and drop and would have landed on him if he hadn’t moved. He was getting back to his feet as the thing, obviously wounded, took off towards the source of the shouting, only to run into the point of a spear. He stood there dumbfounded for a moment as he heard Duke’s almost forgotten voice say amusedly, “In the flank, sweetheart? I think you’re losing your touch.” 

“Oh shut up, it’s dark out here,” Audrey told him with a playful shove before they remembered that they’d seen someone else there. Duke lit the torch he’d brought along to get a better look and they both gasped. “Dwight?” Audrey asked in shock before rushing at him to hug him tightly. 

“Sheba, no!” Duke called, and the lynx dropped in midair a few feet away. 

Dwight held onto Audrey for dear life, never having been so happy to see someone in his life before he was startled by Duke’s yell and turned to see the lynx and swallowed heavily. “It’s okay. She just thought you were hurting Audrey for a minute,” Duke said as he walked over to the cat that was as tall as his shoulders and scratched her behind the ears. She’d been chasing off another of the oversized rodents while they dealt with that one. 

“You…you’re really here…alive,” Dwight finally managed words. 

“Yeah, we are,” Audrey chuckled. “But we really need to go help this foal right now, so we’ll have to talk while we work.” 

Duke reached out and clapped a hand on Dwight’s shoulder before handing him the torch since they’d lit it too soon for him to be able to carry that and the rest of the supplies. Dwight took the torch and followed them towards a circle of horses that parted to let them through. Duke set the pot of warm water next to where Audrey was kneeling by the foal and then took the torch from Dwight to stick it in the ground next to her. Then he pulled his bow and strung an arrow as he took a place within the circle of horses while Sheba prowled around the outside of it. When he noticed that Dwight had followed him, he asked, “So what brings you here Squatch?” 

“That’s a very long story,” Dwight sighed. 

“We’ve got time. Audrey’s gonna be a while,” Duke told him. 

“This one is pretty bad,” Audrey spoke up and let them know. “I don’t know if we can save her.” 

“I know you’ll do your best and so do the horses,” Duke assured her before turning his attention back to Dwight, knowing that Audrey was listening too, and they wouldn’t have to tell the story again. 

“After you guys disappeared, there was nothing to stop Croatoan from taking over Haven. We tried to fight, but it was useless. He wanted to start experimenting and started calling Aether from the void. That’s when things started to get really bad. He couldn’t stop the flow. Said that the void smelled our world and wanted in or something and the Aether just kept coming,” Dwight started. 

“That explains where it all went,” Duke said with a sigh. 

“Yeah, but it turned out that such massive quantities of it were toxic to humans and everything was falling apart. In Haven and in the rest of the world. McHugh and I and a few others had been ordered by Croatoan to find Audrey and bring her back and he sent us outside the mist to do it, not that we had any intention of carrying out those orders, but we made him think we would so that we could get out and try to warn the rest of the world.”

“So you’re here to bring me back?” Audrey asked worriedly, catching the past tense he’d used when he said he had no intention of doing so. 

“No, not at all. There’s nothing left there anyway. The air is toxic now and people have been dying in droves,” Dwight told her. “No, I came here with a group of survivors to try and escape it. Vince had told me about the open thinny in North Carolina before Croatoan killed him, and as awful as the void was rumored to be, it had to be better than dying from the plague as they were calling it.” 

“Hang on,” Duke said raising his bow and taking a shot. They heard a squeal of pain before the blur disappeared back into the woods. “Damn. Just winged it. I’ll try and find the arrow tomorrow,” he muttered. “You were saying?” 

“What are those things?” Dwight had to ask. 

“Best we can tell, giant rats of some sort. Not sure if you’ve noticed, but animals here are a lot bigger than on Earth,” Duke told him. “They’re nocturnal so you don’t have to worry about them during the day, but you really shouldn’t be out at night, you know.” 

“You are,” Dwight pointed out. 

“One of them got a foal that strayed too close to the woods so we’re trying to save it,” Audrey chimed in. “It happens sometimes.” 

“She’s a more gentle hand at these kinds of things so I help the horses and the cat stand watch while she works,” Duke told him as Sheba took off to chase another one back into the woods. “So you’re here with a group of people? How many and where are they?” 

“They’re all bunked down in your old cave for the night, but we’re not in good shape so we couldn’t waste any time trying to find you,” Dwight told them. “We’re all seriously dehydrated and haven’t eaten in almost a week. There’s about thirty five of us, other than me and McHugh, the oldest is fourteen.”

“You brought a group of kids here with just the two of you?” Duke asked incredulously. 

“No. We started out with over three hundred of us,” Dwight said wearily. “We lost a hundred right off the bat. This end of the thinny opened right into a nest of spiders the size of small dogs. A few people took one look and turned back while the rest of us fought our way out. Fifty more died from the venom by the next night. Then the ants came. Almost as big as the spiders. Those of us that survived that wave decided to make for the ocean, hoping that it would be safer on the beach. When we got into the water to wash off all the blood we were covered in…”

“Ooh bad idea,” Duke winced. “Blood in the water draws the carnivorous fish.”

“Yeah. We learned that the hard way. Lost quite a few more there,” Dwight said. “But it was safe enough on the shore though. We knew we couldn’t stay by the ocean all the time. If nothing else we would need fresh water, so we started trying to think of where we could go that might be safer and we decided that heading north might just be our best bet since there are fewer insects that way.”

“Yeah, we’ve never seen any at all up here,” Duke told him. “But there are other dangers still. They’re survivable though for the most part once you know the lay of the land.” He let loose another arrow. “Like staying inside and secure after dark.” 

“So we spent almost six weeks walking. Every so often we would get hard up enough for water or hungry enough that a party would head inland to find something, but they seldom came back and the few times they did, there wasn’t enough left of them to do much more than get out a warning, so we stopped sending people. Some people were stubborn enough or desperate enough to help the kids that they kept trying, but it’s been down to just me, McHugh, and the surviving kids for the last two weeks. I almost cried when I saw your boat and hoped that you could help us.”

“Absolutely,” Duke nodded. “First thing in the morning we’ll load up with as much food and water as we can take and head down.”

“We’ll have to plow out some more fields if we’re going to feed that many more people, but at least we have a lot more help,” Audrey added. 

“And there are still a few things that we can plant this late in the year. It’ll be tight for a while until the harvests start coming in, but we’ll do some more hunting and we’ll manage.”

“Worst case scenario, we’ll just start taking down these rats. They’re safe to eat, but not very tasty,” Audrey told him.

“I don’t think any of us care about tasty right now,” Dwight snorted amusedly.


	3. Chapter 3

“What kind of skills do the kids have? How much of a crash course are they going to need?” Duke asked. 

“They’re pampered Earth kids. What do you think?” Dwight said wryly. 

“Okay, well not to sound callous or anything, but they’re gonna have to toughen up. Fast. Even if we have to be harsh about it,” Duke told him. There was no way they could feed all those people with just four adults doing the work. Even with their twins helping. 

“I know they have to toughen up, but they’re weak and terrified right now. If we get too harsh with them…”

“They’ll have to learn to deal,” Duke told him. “They won’t survive long if they don’t. There’s only so much we can do to coddle them. There are over thirty of them and four of us, including McHugh. How long do you think we can function like that?” 

Dwight sighed, but couldn’t help saying, “I wonder if you’d be so quick to throw /your/ kids under that bus.” 

“We don’t need to,” Audrey said as she got up, having done all she could for the foal who was being helped to it’s feet by it’s mother. “Ours were born here. This is all they’ve ever known. They’ve worked and fought their whole lives.” 

“You have kids?” Dwight asked surprised. 

“Yeah. Come on. You can crash on our couch for tonight and we’ll head out in the morning,” Duke told him, putting his bow on his back and readying his spear again. He detoured to grab the dead rat that had tried to eat Dwight and dragged it with them. “It’s not exactly comfortable for sleeping, but it’s better than the ground.” 

“Couch…” Dwight said in awe. “You actually have a couch.” He stopped short as they got close enough to see the house. “And a whole house. Not a cave…a real house.” 

“Took us three years to build,” Duke said proudly. “And a year after we got here to even start it.” 

“We’ll have to talk quietly once we’re inside, so we don’t wake the kids,” Audrey reminded them as they got to the door. 

Sheba followed them inside and curled up next to her brother in their normal spot in front of the fireplace as Dwight looked around in awe. Duke dropped the dead rat in their animal processing corner as Audrey went to get Dwight some water and a bowl of leftover stew and Duke steered him to the table to sit. “We’ve been here a very long time,” Duke pointed out amusedly at the look on Dwight’s face as he drank the entire cup of water which Audrey took to refill while he dug into the stew. 

“And Duke here is a genius when it comes to figuring things out,” Audrey said proudly, sidling up to her husband’s side. 

“And you’re a very fast learner,” Duke returned. “I could never have gotten this far without her help.” 

“You guys have done amazing here,” Dwight admitted. “Is…Nathan around too?” he had to ask. 

They both sighed sadly and Duke hugged Audrey to him. “Nathan…didn’t make it. He was already gone when we got here,” Duke explained. 

“We did name our son after him. You can meet him in the morning,” Audrey told him. 

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Dwight said sympathetically. “How old are your kids?” he asked curiously. 

“They’re tenish. We don’t really keep track of time so much, but they were born towards the end of summer about ten summers ago,” Duke said. “Nathan and Gloria are twins.” 

“That must have been a handful with everything else you had going on,” Dwight said, respecting them even more for handling that. 

“Thankfully, we already had the house and all the basics by the time they came along,” Duke chuckled. 

“But it didn’t help when Duke here came home with twin lynx kittens that he’d orphaned when the babies were two days old so we had to hand rear them too,” Audrey teased. 

“But it was worth it in the end though,” Duke told her. “How many times have those cats saved all our lives?” 

“Too many to count,” Audrey admitted with a chuckle. While they’d been talking her mind had been turning over what to do about all those starving kids and had an idea. “Why don’t you grab a couple of those spare barrels and we’ll do up as much stew as we can get done tonight and put it in the barrels to take down?” 

Duke nodded and went to grab the barrels while Audrey started pulling out ingredients, making sure to grab ones that wouldn’t take as long to cook, skipping the potatoes since those would make it take too long. Once Duke was back with the barrels he refilled Dwight’s bowl before pouring the rest into a barrel and then starting another pot of water, grabbing the rabbit meat since it would cook the fastest. The kids had taken down two big ones in the last week so they had enough for quite a bit of stew and he started cutting it up into small chunks while Audrey worked on the vegetables. “You think two barrels will be enough?” Duke asked Dwight. 

“It should be plenty,” Dwight nodded. “I can’t thank you guys enough for this. Really.” 

“Like we would let those kids starve,” Audrey chuckled and shook her head. 

“So, what else should we know about surviving here?” Dwight asked as he continued eating. 

“The winters are really harsh. You’ll want some bearskin cloaks. We should have enough bearskin saved up to get everyone at least one, but they’ll probably have to double as blankets. I don’t think we have enough for that too,” Audrey told him. 

“Sticking to for now though since we have a while until winter,” Duke took over. “You already know stay out of the ocean if you’re bleeding or have blood on you. The rest of the time it’s safe as long as you don’t go too deep, but if you cut yourself like on a shell or something, get out fast. Those fish can swarm in seconds.” 

“Yeah, I think we’ll just stay out of the ocean altogether,” Dwight shuddered. Seeing his friends ripped apart by those fish had been enough for one lifetime.

“Except you’ll need the saltwater to brine your meat and keep it from spoiling and to wash the hides to keep them preserved. Now the brining we have this system where we just toss the barrel out and reel it in with ropes so we don’t have to get in, but there’s not much choice with cleaning the hides,” Audrey told him. “Another thing to remember, if you see a bear, get to safety by any means necessary and let Duke know as soon as possible so he can go after it. We try to keep them out of this area, but they always come wandering in a few times a year.”

“That works for the kids, but McHugh and I can learn to take them on too if Duke can,” Dwight said, not much liking the idea of running to Duke for help whenever one came around. 

“No, you really can’t,” Duke shook his head. “Bears are bigger here too. Like about thirty feet tall on their hind legs.” 

“Then how do you do it?” Dwight asked with wide eyes. 

“I picked up a phasing trouble right before we got trapped here. Basically, I just phase right through it until I piss it off enough to try and take a bite out of me and then its head gets close enough to phase a spear through its brain. I let go. Spear becomes physical again. Voila. Dead bear,” Duke explained. 

Dwight huffed as he set his spoon in the empty bowl. “Damn. I was hoping you figured out some way to get the guns to work or something.” 

“Nope. Nothing mechanical works here. Even when its built here,” Audrey said regretfully. “Some kind of interference in the atmosphere or something. We’ve tried some simple circuits that should have worked, but they don’t.”

Dwight sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose. “So all those guns and ammo we’ve been carrying around for weeks are completely useless.” That had been the biggest reason they’d lost so many. They’d stocked up for a hostile environment and had plenty of weapons, but none of them had worked. If they’d known before they came they would have stocked up on things like swords and bows and arrows and spears. 

“Not necessarily,” Duke told him. “One of these days I’m gonna get around to figuring out a forge and I’ll be able to melt them all down for spear and arrow tips or better tools or whatever else we need.”

“And we can mine the gunpowder from the bullets too,” Audrey added. 

“Yeah okay. We’ll just store them somewhere until we get around to it then,” Dwight said, not sure why he was surprised that a forge was on Duke’s to-do list. 

“You look like you’re about to fall out. Why don’t you go get some sleep and we can talk more in the morning?” Audrey suggested. 

“Here, let me grab a spare blanket and pillow,” Duke said helpfully as he went to do just that, getting one of the warthog hide blankets since it was summer. Sleeping on the bear hide was plenty warm enough. 

Dwight didn’t even have the strength to argue and just went over to lay on the couch that felt like heaven after almost two months of sleeping on the hard ground. He had a brief moment of guilt that he was here in luxury while all the kids were sleeping on the cave floor, but it didn’t have long to settle before he was fast asleep. Duke and Audrey took turns sleeping and cooking until they had both barrels filled with stew and they covered them up and went to bed with a few hours left of the night to go.


	4. Chapter 4

Dwight woke up the next morning to a small voice trying to whisper softly, but in the vein of kids everywhere it came out much louder than intended. “Mom. Dad. There’s a man here.” 

Dwight cracked his eyes open to see Duke and Audrey sitting up in bed as Duke said, “We know. That’s our friend Dwight. He came by after you were in bed last night.”

Dwight took the opportunity to sit up, drawing the attention of the children who suddenly rushed over. “You’re Dwight? The same one Mom and Dad always talk about? The giant?” the one he was pretty sure was the girl asked. 

Duke and Audrey snickered amusedly as they got out of bed and Dwight answered, “I don’t know if I would call me a giant, but…yeah, probably.” He was a little touched that they told their kids stories about him, and apparently good ones since the kids didn’t seem afraid of him. He’d had his ups and downs with them both so it was nice to know they remembered him fondly. 

“Okay, kids, there’s a little break from routine today,” Audrey rescued Dwight. “Dwight came here with a bunch of orphaned kids who are sick and hungry so we’re not gonna worry about the morning chores and go there to help them.”

“Okay,” the kids said as they turned, clearly waiting for instructions. Not only would they get out of chores, but they got to meet other kids. This was already shaping up to be the best day. 

“Okay, Nate start gathering up all the spare knives we have and load them in the bags, Gloria you do the same for the clothes, especially what you’ve grown out of,” Duke started handing out orders. 

“What can I do?” Dwight asked amusedly as the kids rushed to get their tasks done. 

“Grab a barrel and follow us,” Audrey told him as she and Duke each grabbed one for themselves and followed them out the door, finally getting a chance to look around the clearing and he was even more in awe than last night. Especially when they headed to a back deck slash dock where a small canoe was tied up. 

“Loop one of those vines through the handles of the barrel and use that to drop it down and then pull it back up,” Duke explained as he demonstrated. 

“This is a pretty nice deck,” Dwight said as he copied their actions. 

“We just finished it a few months ago,” Duke said proudly as the barrels got hauled back up to the deck. 

“Me and Gloria made the canoe and the swing ourselves,” Nate bragged as the twins came out munching on chunks of bread covered in jam. 

“You did a great job,” Dwight said impressed as they fitted lids on the barrels. 

“Thanks,” Gloria said with a grin. “We’re done with what you said,” she told her parents. 

“Okay, grab all but four of the bowls and cups too,” Audrey told them, trying to think of anything else they might need as the kids rushed off to do that. 

“That should cover it for now,” Duke told her, cutting off her thoughts. “We’ll bring them back here to wash up once we’ve got the important stuff handled and then see what else we need.” 

They took the three water filled barrels out front and then went to get the two stew filled barrels as the kids came out leading the cats which were fitted with something that looked almost like saddlebags and Dwight resisted the urge to snicker. The kids could only carry one barrel between them, partially since the barrels were almost as tall as them and Dwight wondered how the three of them would carry four barrels before Duke and Audrey started threading their spears through the handles after fastening the rest of their weapons. Duke took the middle with Dwight and Audrey on the ends and they set off towards the rest of the group. 

McHugh had dozed off and on through the night, leaned against the wall next to the door. He started and jumped to his feet when the door started moving and he quickly got his makeshift spear ready as the kids jolted awake and scurried to the back wall. The first thing he saw was the head of a giant lynx and readied his spear, only pausing when he heard a voice say, “Back Herc. Let’s not scare them to death.” 

McHugh relaxed quite a bit when the cat moved back and then he saw who he recognized as Duke and Audrey along with Dwight and a couple kids. Before he could say anything a streak rushed past him calling, “Daddy! I was so scared. I thought you weren’t coming back and McHugh said you would, but you always say never to go anywhere alone, but then you did and…” 

“Easy, Lizzie,” Dwight chuckled, picking her up and hugging her tightly. “I’m back and we brought food and water for everyone.” 

That got most of the kids moving forward excitedly as Dwight put Lizzie down and helped to carry the barrels in while Nate and Gloria unstrapped the bags from the cats and brought them inside. The twins felt a well of sympathy at the state of the other kids. Dirty and too skinny with torn and ripped clothes that were caked in dirt and blood. “You’ll have to give us a few minutes to scrounge up enough cups and bowls for everyone,” Audrey told them, waving the adults toward the other door to the storage cave. They’d only had a handful of extras at home. 

“Back here,” Duke directed them to the pile of outdated home furnishings. “Cups and bowls were what the kids learned how to craft with so there are a lot of rejects. Not all of them pretty, mind you, but they’ll do the trick,” he told them as they all started grabbing whatever they could, easily having enough to go around. 

The twins had already handed out the cups and bowls they had with them by the time they got back and started handing out the rest. “Now this barrel is to wash your faces and hands in,” Audrey said pulling the lid off the first water barrel and motioning them to line up, giving Dwight and McHugh a little shove to join them. Once she was sure that everyone intended to wash first, she nodded to Duke and the two of them and the twins popped the lids off the other barrels. 

When the first of the kids started lingering at the water barrel drinking and refilling their cups, Duke intervened. “Just take some and move on. There’s plenty for you to come back for more after.” Too used to following orders, they didn’t hesitate to do so, and Nate and Gloria were waiting with ladles at the stew barrels to fill up the bowls as they came by. Duke and Audrey worked to keep things as organized as possible, visibly moved at the state of these kids. 

Once the line ended, Nate nudged his sister and jerked his head towards the back of the cave where two little ones were sitting there hugging their knees, clearly terrified. Gloria nodded gravely at him and they filled up two more bowls and cups and walked over slowly holding them out in offer. “It’s okay,” Gloria said gently like she was talking to a spooked animal. “You can have some too.” 

“I promise it’s good,” Nate said as the kids slowly reached out to take them. “Mom and Dad are great cooks…Well, Dad is, but Mom’s okay too.” 

The adults noticed the scared ones about the time that Nate and Gloria were halfway over so they stopped to see what happened, not planning to intervene unless needed. Dwight in particular had been more than worried about those two. They’d just been withdrawing more and more into themselves and none of the other kids had been much help since they were just as traumatized. They smiled when Nate and Gloria sat down in front of the now slowly eating four year olds. 

“I’m Gloria and this is my twin brother Nate,” she told them. “What are your names?” 

“I Amy,” one of them said in a whisper. “This Annie. We twins too.”

“That’s cool,” Nate said with an encouraging smile. “It’s awesome having a twin huh?” Both of the little girls nodded, but didn’t say anything and still looked pretty scared so Nate and Gloria kept talking softly to them trying to get them to open up. 

“Those are some good kids you got there,” McHugh said with a smile turning to Duke and Audrey as he held out a hand. “Names McHugh.” 

“Duke,” he introduced himself as he shook it. “My wife, Audrey.” 

Audrey took his hand too as Dwight joked, “I can definitely see Audrey’s influence in them.”

They all chucked, but Audrey still had something to say to that. “I don’t know. That scene there reminds me quite a bit of a story I was once told about a certain outgoing little boy befriending the loner on the playground,” she teased Duke, bumping his side playfully. 

Dwight could actually believe that, having seen Duke reach out to the abused and damaged people more than once. He just hadn’t been able to resist the joke. “That doesn’t surprise me a bit,” he said amusedly. 

While Dwight did have some water, he passed on the stew until everyone, including McHugh had seconds. He’d eaten well last night after all. Duke and Audrey waited until then to have any themselves, having skipped breakfast to come down here so fast.


	5. Chapter 5

“They can’t keep using this cave,” Audrey said as she looked around. “It’s too small.”

“We can work on getting a door up on the big cave,” Duke suggested. 

“But what about a vent hole for the fire?” Audrey pointed out. “That ceiling is at least twenty feet high. Even if we go get the ladder, that’s only ten feet.”

“We’ll actually need a few vent holes. As big as it is and as many kids as there are, they’ll need at least three or four fires going in the winter,” Duke told her. “But we’ll figure that part out. First we need a door.” 

“You don’t have any place better for them than a cave?” McHugh asked, knowing it was a long shot, but had to ask. 

“No, we don’t. Even if we filled the entire floor we couldn’t fit them all in our house. The caves aren’t so bad though. We lived in this one for four years. It’s just gonna take a while to figure something else out.” 

“Survival first, comfort second,” Duke told him. “That’s how we got started.”

“And now they have a nice house on a lake with a deck and real furniture,” Dwight told him. “They’ll help us get there too. It’ll just take time.” 

“Exactly. And figuring out a way to feed everyone on a regular basis is the most important thing right now,” Audrey chimed in. 

“Okay, so this big cave…how big is it?” McHugh asked. 

“Come on. We’ll show you,” Duke told him. 

“We can’t just leave the kids here alone,” Dwight pointed out when it seemed like they were all planning to go. 

“They’ll be fine,” Audrey assured him. “We’ll close the door and leave Sheba here to guard outside it if it makes you feel better. I have an idea for the door, but it’s gonna take all of us if we can even manage it at all.” 

“You’re thinking the raft?” Duke asked, having had the same idea. When Audrey nodded, Duke said, “With the four of us and if we can get Herc to help pull we should be able to manage it. I’ll have to cut a usable door into it though since there’s no way anyone could move that to get in and out.” 

“That shouldn’t take too long though. Much less time than building a door that big from scratch,” Audrey told him. 

“Very true. And we can even swipe the inside door here for that since it’s not really needed anymore,” Duke nodded. 

While they worked out those details, Dwight turned to address the group. “Okay kids, listen up. Us grown-ups are going to leave for a while to see about getting a better place to stay. We’ll be closing the door behind us and the big cat you saw before is friendly and she’s gonna guard from the outside.” 

“And we’ll guard from the inside,” Nate said as he and Gloria stood up, grabbing the spears they’d leaned against the wall when they sat down.

“Unless you need our help?” Gloria asked the adults. She got why the didn’t ask the rest of the kids who didn’t look well, but they knew how capable she and Nathan were so it was conceivable. 

“Not this time, sweetheart,” Duke told her. “Staying here to protect the other kids is how you can best help.” Both Nathan and Gloria gave serious nods as the adults left and closed the door behind them. 

When they saw how scared the other kids were getting again, Nathan told them, “Don’t worry. Sheba is a really good protector. The only thing she can’t fight is a bear and they’re too big to get in here.” 

“And even if she leaves to chase something off, we’ve taken down most everything around ourselves lots of times,” Gloria assured them. 

“You’re just kids like us,” someone spoke up. 

“Even littler than some of us,” another one scoffed. 

“And we’ve been fighting stuff like this our whole lives,” Nathan pointed out in irritation. “Besides, nothings gonna get in anyway.” 

“Is anyone still hungry? There’s still some stew left,” Gloria decided to try distraction and it seemed to work well enough. 

As the group walked towards the cave, Audrey couldn’t help but question Dwight. “Lizzie?” 

“Right, yeah. I guess that part of the overview got skipped last night,” Dwight said sheepishly. Truth was, he wasn’t sure how they would take it and had kept putting it off. “When Croatoan got impatient about our progress, he resurrected Lizzie to ‘motivate me’ and told me that you would be able to fix the air and save her and everyone else.” 

“Yeah, that was a lie,” Audrey assured him. “I wouldn’t even know where to begin trying to do that.” 

“I figured it was. Otherwise, I would have come sooner. But yeah, it took me a long time to realize that she really was Lizzie and not just some trick and by then she was getting sick and we didn’t really have anything left to lose so we started gathering up supplies and survivors and planning to come here,” Dwight explained as they reached their destination. 

“Well I’m glad you got her back, no matter how it happened,” Audrey told him with a smile. 

“Let me just check and make sure nothing else has taken up residence since we were last here,” Duke said, stopping them outside and moving slowly into the wide opening. It was best for only one to go and lessen the risk of disturbing anything that was there. He was back a few minutes later. “How would you feel about fighting the bats for it?” he asked Audrey with a smirk. 

“How many bats?” she asked, pulling her quiver around to count arrows. 

“About twenty or so,” Duke told her. 

Audrey only had fifteen arrows, but Duke had the same and he was a decent enough shot for that close of quarters. “Sounds like a plan to me,” she nodded, putting her quiver back on her back and drawing her bow. 

“You two can back us up with spears when they swoop down,” Duke told Dwight and McHugh as they handed them their own better made spears. 

“Just don’t shoot us instead of the bats?” Dwight asked worriedly. 

He didn’t get dignified with a response as Audrey said, “At least this’ll help with meat to feed everyone.” 

“You eat bats?” McHugh asked in surprise. 

“They’re not our first choice, but they’re not bad,” Duke told him. “Meat’s meat.”

“And they’re much better than the rats,” Audrey added. 

“We used to bring the kids to bat caves for target practice when they were learning the bow,” Duke explained. “You just have to be quick to duck if they fly at you. Those talons hurt worse than the teeth, but they can’t track your movement very well.”

“Got it,” Dwight said, tightening his grip on the spear before they headed in quietly. They wanted to take down as many as they could before the rest woke up and started swarming. He’d seen enough bats while they looked for caves for the kids to know how big they were, and he didn’t want to tangle with those talons either. 

Audrey had two on the ground and Duke had one before the rest woke up and they were all busy and moving fast, Duke and Audrey well used to ducking and rolling between shots as McHugh and Dwight used the spears more like baseball bats than spears, but it worked and eventually there were twenty three bats dead on the floor and they were all free to look around. Once they got a torch lit at least. 

“Whew,” McHugh whistled as he looked around. “Yeah this is definitely big enough.”

“It used to belong to a bear,” Audrey told him. “The first one Duke killed. Thing was about thirty feet tall on hind legs and probably about five thousand pounds.”

“How the hell did you manage to kill that?” McHugh asked, looking at Duke with even more respect. 

“Phasing trouble. Put a spear through it’s brain and then let go it rematerializes. It’s the only way to take them down,” Duke explained. 

“So keep an eye out for bear tracks and if you see any, call him in,” Dwight let McHugh know. 

“Understood,” McHugh nodded. “So something was said about a door?” 

“Right, let’s head down to the beach and see if we can’t get that raft moved,” Duke said heading back for the door. 

“We’ll collect up the bats once we’re done,” Audrey added. 

Hercules wasn’t too difficult about pulling the raft. Since the horses still didn’t like leaving the clearing, especially after being taken to a bear the one time they did, the cats occasionally pulled the cart. Only when it was really necessary though. They didn’t like it much. And he didn’t like this either, but he dealt with it. The humans ended up working out a system of using ropes and splitting up two on each side to keep it upright. There was no way they were going to get it through the trees laying flat thirty feet across. It took them a while, but it was finally leaned against the opening of the cave and was a perfect fit. Duke had run in to grab a bat to toss to Herc as a reward before the door was fully in place. 

“Since I’m gonna need to run and get the ladder anyway, I’ll grab some of the better tools to get that door cut out too,” Duke told them. 

“You need some help?” McHugh asked, partially so he could get a look at their setup that seemed to have impressed Dwight so much. 

“Wouldn’t hurt. Come on,” he told him. 

“While they’re doing that, you and I can check in on the kids and start going through the storage room and see what we can find for you guys,” Audrey suggested to Dwight.


	6. Chapter 6

Once the other kids had eaten a little bit more and started getting antsy again, Nathan suggested, “Why don’t we go next door and see what we can find?” 

“Are you sure it’s safe?” a small voice asked. 

“Definitely,” Gloria assured them as she and Nathan worked together to move the door and one of the kids grabbed the torch they were using for light. It was a slow trickle, some of them taking a few minutes to psych themselves out to go through but all their little eyes widened at the sight that met them. “Come on. All the old clothes are back here and we should be able to find something for everyone if you all want to change.” 

Nathan ran back to grab the clothes that they’d brought with them too and add to the pile that was already being attacked. He noticed the two littlest ones still standing back nervously so he set the bag down and started picking through, looking for his and Gloria’s nicest old clothes that might fit them and then helped them change into them. They were a little big and there was probably something that would fit better in the pile, but they were good enough and it wasn’t likely that these two would join into that melee either. “Come here,” he coaxed them, grabbing each of their hands. “You might like this.” He brought them to the pile of old toys from when they were little and picked out two carved horses. “You like horses? These were Gloria and my favorites when we were your age,” said softly. 

Both the little girl’s eyes lit up at the sight of them and they took the toys slowly like they were afraid they would be snatched away any second. “You can keep them,” he told them and then got a hug from each side as the girls started to cry. It had been so long since they’d had anything good that they couldn’t hold them back. Nathan hugged them back uncomfortably, not the best with crying girls. His sister so rarely cried that he didn’t exactly have a lot of experience. 

Gloria noticed his difficulty and laughed, but she still went over to save him. “Hey, how about we look through here some more and see what else we can find?” she asked the girls, holding out her hands to them and they hesitated a minute before nodding and taking her hands and she sat down with them to start digging through. 

“You’re really nice to them,” a voice came from behind Nathan and he turned to look at her. “I’ve tried, but I guess they could tell that I was just as scared as them so it didn’t help much. I’m Lizzie.”

“I’m Nate,” he told her. “You’re better at hiding your fear than the others, but it’s still noticeable,” he addressed her statement. 

“I still have my dad, at least. And he was an Army Ranger. It’s easier for me,” she shrugged. “But you’re not scared at all.” They noticed the other ears listening to their conversation while trying to pretend not to. 

“I get scared sometimes. Dad says it’s normal to be scared. We just can’t let it make us lose our heads. There’s nothing to be scared of in here though. Or even outside most of the time if you’re careful and know what you’re doing.” 

“Will you teach me?” Lizzie asked, determined to be as strong as him and Gloria. 

“Sure,” Nathan shrugged. “We’ll probably be teaching all of you if you’re gonna be staying here.” 

“Even the little ones?” she asked gesturing at the girls playing happily with Gloria. 

“Gloria and I were already learning to use knives at that age and started with bows and spears not long after,” Nathan said matter-of-factly. 

“And we’ll make sure you all learn everything you can,” Dwight said as he came up behind them and put his hand on Lizzie’s shoulder. 

“I see you got a head start in here,” Audrey chuckled at the chaos. 

“Just sitting around was making everybody freak out so wanted to find something to do,” Gloria jumped in just in case Nathan was about to get in trouble for it, leaving the little twins to their play. 

“We gave them all some of our old clothes since theirs looked so bad. We didn’t think you’d mind,” Nathan told her. 

“I don’t mind at all,” Audrey told them, pulling them both into proud hugs. “We were planning to do the same thing.” 

“Some of them had to use your old clothes. The bigger kids,” Gloria told her. 

“That’s okay. The whole reason they’re here is because I don’t wear them anymore.” While she and Duke didn’t replace their clothes nearly as often as the kids, there was a little bit of stuff that they’d replaced before it had been strictly necessary. She turned to Dwight. “There’s a few old things of Duke’s here too for you and McHugh. They might be a little tight, but they should be good enough for now.” Duke always tended towards looser clothes anyway and most of the pants were drawstring since they didn’t have access to elastic. They were roughly the same height, but Dwight was a lot bulkier and so was McHugh to a lesser extent. 

“Yeah, okay. I’d appreciate that,” Dwight nodded in relief and headed towards the clothing as the kids moved off to explore more, all in new clothes made from animal hide. Newish clothes at least. Some of them were a little frayed, especially on the older kids. The twins tended to outgrow their clothes before they could get too worn so those were better. He dug through what was once a neat stack and was now a strewn pile to find some lighter weight clothes that looked like they would fit him and stripped down to change. Propriety had gone out the window a long time ago given the way the kids would freak out if he left their line of sight and his need to keep an eye on them as well. It only took a second for some predator to grab them after all. He assumed that Duke and Audrey were the same way given the way they’d changed this morning without even acknowledging his presence so it hardly mattered. 

While Dwight was digging through clothes and changing, Audrey was going through the other abandoned supplies like the older designs of axes and saws and finding the best ones to set aside for the adult use and another pile of unbroken ones for the kids to practice with. All of the knives in here were broken since you could never have too many knives around and the kids had made a lot of them when they were learning. She would get into the bag and start handing out the spare knives they’d brought with them once she was done here. 

Dwight joined her when they moved on to the weapons. She set aside their earliest model bows for the youngest kids to learn with and ended with only eight intact bows and no arrows. Those they always kept with them. Arrows were among the easiest things to make though so they would be taught to make their own and could learn with borrowed ones. She, Duke, and their kids would have to make some more bows though. They were more complicated and it would be a while before the other kids were capable of that.

While she was looking for usable bows, Dwight was looking for good spears. “You won’t find too many spears in your size in there if any,” Audrey told him with a chuckle. “Duke loses his every time he kills a bear so they don’t really get recycled.”

“That’s okay. McHugh and I can make our own now that we have a chance to make good ones,” Dwight told her. 

“We’ll get the kids making their own too soon enough, but these will do them in the meantime assuming there’s enough,” Audrey told him. “And Duke usually keeps a couple extras at home so when he does lose them he doesn’t have to rush to replace it. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind loaning them until you get around to making new ones. It’s going to be very busy for the next few days at least.” 

“Okay, yeah. That might be best then,” Dwight nodded. Their current ones were hastily sharpened sticks with the bark even still on them. And not even straight sticks. They managed to find enough spears for everyone, though they weren’t all the best craftsmanship. Some of them were ones that Nate and Gloria had done when they were learning. A lot of the others were ones that the twins had grown out of over the years and there were even a few of Audrey’s old ones here from whenever they found something that would work better. 

“Do you guys need any help?” Nathan asked her and she turned to see both the twins there. 

“Yeah, actually. If one of you will run and grab the bag with the spare knives and the other one get the other kids gathered,” Audrey suggested. 

“We’re gonna hand them out now?” Dwight asked. “They don’t really know how to use them yet. Especially the knives.”

“I’m sure if we stress that they’re not to play with them it’ll be okay and maybe my two will even decide to give an impromptu lesson or two while we’re working to keep them busy,” she told him. 

Dwight shrugged, but still had to say, “I’d still feel better if your two would hold the ones for the two youngest outside of any lessons they choose to give.” Other than the twin four year olds, the youngest was six so could likely be trusted. 

“Fair enough,” Audrey agreed as the kids gathered around them directed by Nate just as Gloria came back with the bag of knives. “Okay first things first, does anyone here already know how to use a bow?” Almost all the hands went up so she decided to modify that question. “And has successfully used one in the past?” All but three hands went down so she handed out the best three bows to them before handing out the other five starting from the oldest down. “We don’t have any arrows for you yet, but you’ll learn to make your own soon and we’ll get more bows made for the rest of you too.”

“Now knives,” Dwight took over. “I want to stress that these are /not/ toys. You do not play with them or even jokingly use them against each other for /any/ reason. Understood?” When he got a series of nods he started handing them out as Audrey taught them how to clip the scabbards onto their waistbands. 

Audrey took two of the smallest knives and turned to Nathan and Gloria. “These are for the two little ones. If you decide to teach them anything while the grown-ups are working you can give them to them for that, but watch them closely and take them back when you’re done, okay?” 

“Okay, Mom. We can do that,” Gloria promised. 

From there they had everyone line up to be fitted for a spear. Ideally, they would be just a few inches taller than the kid in question, but they weren’t able to get everyone a perfect fit. Dwight had to admit that Audrey’s idea of handing the weapons out now had been a good one. He could see the fear lessening now that they had some way to defend themselves. He just hoped that it wouldn’t backfire and they’d end up hurting themselves or each other. Or even get overconfident enough to wander away. Presumably Nathan and Gloria were smarter than that though and would do what they could to keep that from happening and come for help if something did happen.


	7. Chapter 7

As Duke and McHugh walked back towards the clearing, McHugh decided to get some intel in the form of conversation. “I’d really be interested to hear how you managed to survive long enough to get started here.”

“With a little skill and a whole crapload of luck,” Duke chuckled before going into detail. “We got here on a small island off the coast. Kick ‘Em Jenny Neck we called it back on Earth.”

“I’m familiar with it,” McHugh nodded. “But there’s no fresh water there. It couldn’t have been quick or easy to build that raft which is how I’m assuming you got back here.”

“Which is where the luck comes in. We got here in the middle of winter which meant there was plenty of snow to melt for ice. We also arrived in an underground cave system and managed to find an area that was small enough with a small enough opening to heat and had a partial cave in for a vent hole in the ceiling for the fire. It was still cold as hell, but it was at least a survivable cold.”

“I see what you mean by luck.”

“Very much so. See the lack of fresh water meant there weren’t any animals there, so we had plenty of time in peace to start building up our supplies, starting with a couple barrels to hold and melt water in among other things.” McHugh had spent enough time in the wilds in the military to not need or want explanation of those ‘other things’ and was glad that Duke didn’t elaborate. “We also made fishing poles right off and managed to catch enough fish to feed us for the few weeks we holed up there.” 

“And it was cold enough that you didn’t bother trying to get in the water to get caught by the fish,” McHugh realized. 

“Yes and no,” Duke gave a half shrug. “Our friend Nathan had been killed when we got here. Crushed by a boulder. It was bad. But his clothes were a mess. We knew we would need as much of that as we could get though so we took them to rinse them out during our first fishing trip and then started catching the carnivorous fish so that’s how we figured that particular danger out. Future fishing trips we caught more normal fish though, so we realized they only come where there’s blood.” 

“Kinda like sharks,” McHugh nodded. “At least we don’t have to avoid the ocean altogether. Was the cave we stayed last night your first place here or was there another before that?”

“That was the first and most of the first year was spent just getting the basics. Figuring out weapons, cooking, how to make clothes, needles, thread, bandages, medicines and so on. Once we were set there, we started on the house which took another three years and we’ve been steadily working since,” Duke explained as they stepped into the clearing. 

When McHugh saw the nice log cabin next to the lake and the fenced off garden he could definitely see why Dwight had been impressed. To think that they’d done all this with just two people while managing to survive was astonishing. “Very nice,” McHugh told him. 

“Thanks. Blood sweat and tears, you know,” Duke chuckled. “With a lot of all three.” 

“I can only imagine,” McHugh chuckled with him before taking a nervous step back and tightening his grip on his spear as the biggest horse he’d ever seen in his life trotted up. 

“It’s fine. They’re friendly,” Duke told him before turning his attention to the horse. He could spot the signs of nervousness and he reached out to run a soothing hand down his neck. “I know, buddy. I’ll run to the house and grab some stuff and come check on him in a minute.” The horse gave a whinny and then turned to run off. 

“It almost seemed like it understood you,” McHugh said confusedly. 

“I think they do,” Duke told him. “They’ve learned over time. They’re a lot smarter than Earth horses. Than any Earth animal really. I think they were the rulers of the roost before we got here, and still are in a lot of ways.”

“What do you mean?” he asked curiously.

“This clearing has always been a mostly predator free zone. There are some that try every now and then, but the horses run them off. I even watched them chase off one of the giant bears once, though it did take the entire herd to do it. Obviously, they’d never seen anything like us before so when we came, they moved into the trees and watched us. We thought at the time that they were just skittish, but we realize now that they were curious. For months they watched us from closer and closer trying to figure out if we were a threat. We live here because they let us. Because we live and let live. They help us sometimes, when they feel like it, and we help them when we can too, like now,” Duke explained as they walked into the house. 

“What do they need your help with?” He had no problem believing the hyper intelligent horses. This world was so alien he could believe most anything. 

“One of the foals wandered too close to the woodline after dark last night and got bit by one of those rats,” Duke gestured to the one in the corner as he moistened the bandages and grabbed the moss, not missing McHugh’s shudder at the sight of it. “They’re completely nocturnal so as long as you’re securely indoors at night, you’re fine. While they’re safe to eat, their saliva carries some kind of bacteria. It’s fatal if untreated. I got bit our first night here. This moss fights that bacteria.” 

McHugh followed him back out the door. “Will they mind me being here or should I wait at the house?” 

“They didn’t mind Dwight last night when they were more on edge so you should be fine. Not sure how they’ll feel about the whole crowd when they get here though, so we’ll need to warn the kids away unless they’re approached,” Duke told him. 

“We’ll do that,” McHugh agreed as they reached the group and he held his hands out to his side, leaving his spear clipped in his belt so they would know he came in peace. The one he thought might be the leader came and gave him a vigorous sniff before letting him pass and he knelt next to the foal with Duke to help. He had plenty of experience with bandages from the military. “So, what kind of help do they give you?” he asked curiously, taking the wet cloth to wash off the wound gently once Duke removed the old bandage. 

“Carrying or pulling things mostly. They’ll let us ride most of the time, but since they don’t leave the clearing and we try not to take advantage of them, we don’t do it often,” Duke told him as he broke up the moss and put it over the wound and McHugh tied the new bandage on. 

“Makes sense,” he nodded. “You keep this?” he guessed, holding out the old bandage.

“Yeah, we’ll boil it down later to sterilize it again. We’re running a little low on cloth for bandages so we don’t waste anything,” Duke told him. 

“Well, we brough clothes with us and we’d be glad to let you use some,” McHugh told him. After everything the Crockers were doing for them, he’d be an ass not to offer.

“We’ll definitely take you up on a little of that. But make sure you keep enough for bandages for yourselves too. While we /can/ use other things, cloth is easiest to sterilize and reuse, so until we manage to figure out how to make more you should keep a good amount too.”

“We will,” he nodded. “Thank you. For everything you’re doing for us.”

“It’s no trouble,” Duke told him. “Well it kinda is, but the necessary kind. It’s not like we would leave anyone to suffer like that and besides…it’s good to shake things up every now and then. Keep from getting complacent.” 

McHugh chuckled at that as he followed Duke back into the house where he threw the used bandage into a small bucket of water and then went towards the back wall and started pulling things out of a box to hand to him. “Complacency is never a good thing,” McHugh agreed, taking the two saws and something that looked almost like a manual drill in a T-shape that was as tall as he was. 

“That’s for the vent holes,” Duke told him as he closed the box and grabbed a tall ladder that was laying on it’s side behind it. McHugh grabbed one end of the ladder and kept the saws while Duke took the drill back, leaning it over his shoulder and they headed back towards the caves. 

“So I’m guessing that flimsy fencing works because they’re smart enough to realize that it means you’ve claimed that spot and they let you?” McHugh asked as they walked by the garden. 

“Pretty much, yeah,” Duke nodded. 

“Do you think they’ll let you expand it?” he asked worriedly. 

“Hopefully,” Duke shrugged. “That’s part of the reason I want to bring the kids up this afternoon once we finish with this. Not only do they need to get cleaned up in the lake, but I want the horses to see that we’re not expanding because of greed and that we have more mouths to feed.” 

“Makes sense,” he nodded, just hoping that it worked. “What if they object?” He didn’t want to try and tangle with an entire herd of horses this big that chased off thirty foot bears. 

“Then we find other alternatives. There are areas we can clear out for gardens without too much effort. Places that are mostly brush and bushes instead of trees. It’ll just be a matter of getting back and forth and those areas aren’t quite as safe. We’ll make do either way though,” Duke assured him.


	8. Chapter 8

Duke and McHugh grabbed Dwight and Audrey on their way back right after they finished outfitting the kids with weapons, and Duke gave a satisfied nod at the sight and gave his kids a look that they clearly understood as ‘help them’. Not that they didn’t have every intention of doing so anyway. It took them a little over an hour to cut the door out and get the new one that Dwight and Audrey had carried from the other caves installed with Duke’s makeshift hinges. “We’re making it open out instead of in so that those rats can’t knock the door in at night, but keep in mind that it’ll be tough to get in and out when the snow is too deep.”

“We’ll figure something out,” Dwight nodded in acceptance and they went inside to see about the vent holes. 

“Why don’t you go get the kids and have them bring their stuff over here,” Duke suggested to Dwight. “This part is a one person job. Two if you include a spotter.”

“I’ll stay here with you and make sure you don’t break your fool neck,” Audrey said amusedly as he set the ladder up, starting in the middle of the cave which would be the main cooking fire. 

“Thank you, dear,” Duke laughed. As Dwight and McHugh headed out the new door, he climbed up the ladder and stood on the very top bar which got him most of the way to the ceiling. The five and a half foot long drill got the rest of the way. 

Audrey muttered about breaking his fool neck again as she held the ladder steady, but didn’t intervene. It wasn’t like there was any other way to do it after all and she knew that Duke had pretty good balance at least. With the drilling tool it didn’t take long at all for him to break through and by the time the kids were trailing in with all their stuff, looking around thankfully at the large space, he was working on the last of the holes. He figured small fires at each of the walls plus the big one in the center should be enough to keep the large space warm in the winter. 

Audrey thought of something else as they filed in and asked the twins to go grab three of the large rolls of bear hide from storage while Dwight and McHugh went out to start gathering firewood and she addressed the group of kids. “Okay, don’t start unpacking your stuff just yet. Leave everything that needs washing in your packs and we’re going to go up to the lake in a little while to take care of that.” 

“Is the lake safe to swim in?” Lizzie asked. 

“Yes it is, so you’ll be able to wash yourselves too,” Audrey assured her, getting sighs of relief from all the kids. 

When Nathan and Gloria got back with the hides, they started spreading them out, one on each side wall and the smaller one on the back wall. “Girls over there, boys over there, adults in between,” Duke told them and they quickly separated sitting and even laying on the thick luxurious hides. 

“This is better than a bed,” one of the girls said happily as she stretched out. 

That was the scene that Dwight and McHugh walked back in on with their first loads of firewood that they dumped in the center firepit and they grinned at Duke and Audrey. They had completely turned these kids’ lives around in just a few hours and this was only the beginning. “I’ll come help with the firewood while Duke rigs up a makeshift stove,” Audrey offered and joined them for the next trip. 

Duke started going through the firewood they’d already brought to forage pieces from and easily found some forked pieces of wood and handed one to each of his kids to start sharpening the single end while he worked on the last two for a square. He pulled some of the rope thin sinew rope that they always carried in their belts and tied longer thin sticks to finish the square and then paced it off so he could get a top for it once they got to their main wood stash at home. He made sure it was up high enough that it wouldn’t catch fire but would still cook and he just finished with that when the next and last for now load of firewood came in. 

“Okay, everybody up. Let’s head to the lake,” Dwight told them and they all hopped to and put their packs back on. 

They were clearly more than a little scared as they left the safety of the caves, but they were holding it together a lot better than they had been before. They still bunched in the middle though with the four adults and the native twins surrounding them and one big cat on each side of the group. They stopped at the original cave and the new kids gladly offered to carry the six barrels back that were now filled with dead bats with a lot of bats also being carried by those who didn’t have barrels. 

During the walk, McHugh told them about the horses. “Now there is a herd of horses near the lake and they won’t hurt you, but they might be nervous about so many people so leave them alone unless they come to you.” 

“Which reminds me,” Duke told Audrey. “I checked on the foal and redressed his leg when we went for the tools and stuff.” The kids were also carrying all that back too. They didn’t want the adults focused on anything but protecting them. 

“How was he?” Audrey asked worriedly. 

“Not too bad. The infection is just starting to set in, but the medicine is keeping it from getting too bad. He should be okay there. Just not sure if he’ll recover enough to be able to walk on it again.” 

“Well, we’ll cross our fingers,” Audrey told him. 

Once they stepped into the clearing, the leader of the herd came towards them, but stopped about ten yards away and Duke peeled off from the group, knowing what he wanted, waving the others on. The horse looked at the group of people and then back to Duke who told him, hoping that he could understand as well as they thought he could. “They came here from a dying world. Most of them are kids…foals. They’re scared and hungry and need help.” 

The horse seemed to consider for a moment before throwing his head in what passed for a nod, so Duke continued. “We’re going to need to use more of the field to grow food,” he told him getting an impatient huff. “And maybe build them some houses?” he knew he was pushing it, but what else could he do. The horse tossed his head in a clear no, stomping the ground and really Duke could understand it. If this went too far, they would be pushed out of their own clearing. “Okay how about just one house. For them all to share? Just until they’re strong enough and we can teach them enough to make it on their own?” 

The horse took a moment before stomping his foot once and the ground and turning to run back to the herd. Duke knew that meant he was supposed to wait for a decision and did so. They had always had an easy truce with the horses built on trust and understanding, and he wasn’t going to mess it up when they needed their cooperation the most. It wasn’t long before he was coming back and gave a grudging nod before nudging Duke in a particular direction and leading the way. Duke followed to a spot near the far edge of the clearing on the other side of their garden and the horse stomped the ground there. “This is where we can build it?” The horse gave a nod-equivalent. “Because you don’t want to block any more of the lake access?” Duke asked understandingly, getting another nod, less irritated this time, apparently mollified by the understanding and implied acceptance. “Then this is where we’ll build it,” Duke agreed, making a mental note of the area for later. “We won’t be starting for a while though. We have to find a way to feed them all first and get the food growing,” he let him know and the horse gave another nod before turning to canter back to the herd that was waiting on the far side of the lake from where the kids were now playing. 

When Duke walked back up, Audrey asked, “Did we come to an agreement?” 

“They’ll let us expand the garden within reason, but will only allow one more building over there at the edge of the clearing so it doesn’t block any more of the lake,” Duke told her, McHugh, and Dwight. 

“It’s better than nothing,” McHugh nodded in acceptance. 

“And I can see their point. If we end up turning this clearing into a village or something they’ll get pushed out,” Dwight admitted. 

“They’re right,” Audrey agreed. “It happened on Earth often enough. We’ll find you a place for long term though and help you get it all built.”

“At least they’re giving us that time,” McHugh said gratefully. “Maybe we should just start on that first and skip the one here. It’s gonna take a long time to build if it’s just going to end up abandoned within a few years. We could be working on the village instead.” 

“If that’s what you’d rather do, then that’s what we can do,” Duke told him. “You have time to decide. There’s still a lot of other things to figure out before worrying about building.” As the kids started filing out of the water, now much cleaner, Duke asked Audrey, “Where are ours?” 

“I asked them to go ahead and get the rat rendered down and brining before it went bad,” Audrey told him. 

“Okay, good. I almost forgot about that,” Duke nodded. “How many empty brining barrels do we have at the moment?” 

“Three since we cleaned out the last of the rabbit last night,” Audrey told him. “I told them to put the rat in that one and we can do the bats in the other two.”

“There will still be a lot left over, but I can do that up for dinner for everyone,” Duke decided. “Not everyone will get it hot of course. We can’t fit more than ten steaks on at a time and even that’s pushing it.” 

“I seriously doubt anyone will complain,” McHugh snorted amusedly. 

“We can get all the kids working on the bats after lunch. Let ours teach them while we supervise. We’ll have to double up on some of them though,” Audrey suggested. 

“Put the youngest ones with the oldest ones,” Dwight agreed. 

“And I’ll grab the steaks as their ready and spend the afternoon cooking,” Duke chimed in. “What are we gonna do for lunch though?” 

“Fruit and celery?” Audrey shrugged. “There’s no time to cook four rounds of something for lunch too and we don’t have enough bread for everyone to get some.” 

“That’ll be more than enough,” Dwight told them. “And thank you again.”


	9. Chapter 9

The kids all finished drying off and getting their new clothes back on before hanging up their washed out wet clothes on the outside clothesline. Since they usually used it for drying out hides as well as laundry, it was long enough for everyone’s clothes even if there was some overlap. They only did their most recent set each for now and the rest would be left here to be washed out and dried later. Since they’d planned to end up trapped here, they brought a few changes of clothes each. Once they were all done, McHugh called, “Who’s hungry?” and got a stampede. 

“You can handle this?” Dwight asked Duke and Audrey to confirm and got nods from them so the two men took their turn to strip down and jump in the lake to clean up and then washed their clothes out while the kids filed inside to eat. 

With the cats out hunting since their people returned to the safety of the clearing, there was a little more room in the house, but it was still a tight fit. Duke started cutting up batches of celery sticks while Audrey led the kids over to the produce barrels. “We have apples, peaches, and pears. Everyone pick one and feel free to grab a few berries from over here too. Then Duke will have some celery for you to round out lunch,” she told them, getting happy thanks from all of them. 

They weren’t sure if it was the lift in their spirits or the fact that they were actually clean now or a combination of the two, but they seemed like completely different kids from the terrified and downtrodden huddle they met that morning. Nathan and Gloria had just finished the rat and were washing their hands when everyone else came in, and they joined the back of the line for lunch. Some of the kids tried to get them to go first since it was their house and all, but they declined. They realized how lucky they were to have always had access to three good meals every day and these kids needed the food more than they did. 

Duke and Audrey noticed that and bestowed proud hugs to their kids for it and kissed their heads. They didn’t want to embarrass the other kids by saying anything out loud right now, but they had every intention of doing so later. All the kids were sitting down and eating by the time Dwight and McHugh came in and got some food for themselves. Once everyone had eaten, Duke pulled Nathan and Gloria aside and asked them to walk the other kids through rendering down the bats outside and they easily agreed, glad to teach their new friends some basic skills, though still a little confused that they didn’t already know how. 

Gloria and Nathan sat together with one of the bats while the other twenty two were passed out with the youngest few teamed up with the oldest few. Gloria took her knife and started the rendering demonstration while Nathan, being the more outgoing of the two, took over the explanations of what to do and how. All four of the adults wandered through the group correcting grips and pointing out things that they missed. 

Dwight and McHugh considered themselves good survivalists, and they were. By Earth standards. They ended up learning quite a bit in the tutorial themselves. Nathan was a good teacher and while they were working on the hide he was explaining the kinds of things that they used it for like belts, bags, and pouches because bat hide was the most leathery and hairless. They moved on to the sinew, with Nathan explaining how to extract it while Gloria demonstrated, and Nathan told them what they used the sinew for. Ropes and threads and strings and he promised that they’d teach them how to make those things with it another time. Then they continued to the meat and the best way to get it off the bones cleanly. That was where Duke took his leave, grabbing the first few chunks from each of the kids and heading inside to get started on slicing, seasoning, and getting it cooking in batches. 

By the time they were moving on to cleaning the bones, with Nathan explaining what each type of bone was good for, from the thin wing bones making needles to the rib bones making tools, Dwight and McHugh were both more than glad that they’d sat in on the lesson. They really did use every part of the buffalo around here. Even the entrails were used as fertilizers. Once all the bats were completely rendered, with the different piles for each parts, they were walked through slicing up the larger chunks of meat into steak sized pieces that would keep in the brining process. “Nathan is a damn good teacher,” McHugh told Audrey as they started cleaning up, making sure not to leave anything behind and carried it all in to rinse the debris off the meat and put it in the brining and then put the bones and sinew away for now.

“He really is,” Audrey nodded slowly, having been as surprised by that as the men were. “I think we know who’s running the lessons from now on,” she chuckled. 

“Hell, /I/ wanna sit in on those lessons when we have time,” Dwight agreed. “Kid’s found his calling that’s for sure.” 

“And the other kids really listen to him well. Even the older ones,” McHugh added. 

“And did you notice how Gloria was following his explanations more than he was following her?” Audrey pointed out. “They make a good team.” 

“They definitely do,” Duke agreed as he came out. “I’ve got Gloria watching the food. I thought we could go ahead and get the fence moved out so we can start right in on the fields in the morning.” Between the twins, Gloria was the better cook. Nathan tended to get distracted and burn things. Just like his mother. 

While Audrey went to gather more vines for the fencing, the others had a brief conferral with the leader of the herd, during which Dwight too became convinced that they were just as intelligent as people despite communicating differently. It was decided that they would have one large garden instead of multiple smaller ones and that it would grow towards the nearest edge of the clearing first. Moving the fence was easy since it didn’t need to actually be secure. Just a marker so the horses knew what was their food. They hadn’t changed it since they initially built it before they realized the intelligence of the horses, so they saved a lot of vine hunting by cutting out the top and bottom wraps and just leaving the one in the middle. It still wasn’t nearly enough They’d increased the number of mouths to feed by a factor of ten after all. 

By the time they were finished an hour later, between the garden and the house and surrounding area, the people had taken over about an eighth of the original clearing. They had added about half that much in overall area though with all the trees that they’d cut down between building the house, projects, and firewood, which was the main reason the horses were being so lenient about this part. That and it was temporary. Duke and Audrey hadn’t mentioned milking the horses since they knew that they could never provide enough milk for forty people on a regular basis and would be more than a little offended if asked. The horses would greatly appreciate that when they noticed which wouldn’t take long. 

When they got back to the house, they found that Nathan had taken the initiative to get the other kids started on carving and sanding by making their plates for dinner on the lawn, though he was quick to give his sister credit for the suggestion, so the praise was given to them both for the good idea. The adults hadn’t even considered that, having too much else on their minds. Since they were almost done, Dwight waited for them to finish before addressing them and letting them know the plan that the adults had discussed over the course of the day. 

“Okay, here’s how things are going to work from now on,” he started. “We’ll all be coming up here every morning after breakfast. We’ll be bringing our fresh water barrels to refill them in the lake. We’ll have a simple lunch like today’s here and then head home before dark for dinner.” He intentionally called it home, wanting the kids to start thinking of it that way and give them a bit of stability. “For the next few days, the whole day will be spent getting the new fields ready and planted. After that, we’ll work in the fields in the morning and lessons will be in the afternoon. Any questions?” 

“What about weekends?” one of the older kids asked. 

“What’s a weekend?” Nathan whispered to his Mom confusedly. 

“There’s no such thing anymore,” McHugh told them. “The food doesn’t stop growing two days a week, so we can’t take the time off either.”


	10. Chapter 10

“But we can have two afternoons a week off from lessons to just play,” Duke offered. Their kids were losing a lot of their free time by being asked to help with the lessons too, so it was reasonable, and given the ways their kids played, they would learn a lot that way too and help build endurance. “You can decide amongst yourselves if you want two days in a row or split up.” 

“What about rainy days?” someone else asked. 

“As long as there’s no thunder and lightning, we’ll still be working. The hides we wear for clothing is mostly water resistant and we have plenty of hats for you to use on those days, but we will move lessons to your cave since we can’t all fit comfortably in the house,” Audrey explained. 

“When there are storms, McHugh and I will be overseeing practice for your lessons at home,” Dwight told them. 

“What about in the winter?” Lizzie asked. 

“In the winter, it will be mostly lessons done in your cave. We’ll travel down some days and some days Dwight and McHugh will take care of them,” Duke said. 

“After this winter, as long as you work hard, we should be able to cut the lessons down to only a few days a week,” Audrey chimed in to let them know that the crash course wouldn’t last forever and give them a light at the end of the tunnel. 

“What kinds of things will we be learning?” 

“More like today, rendering animals and woodcrafting, along with bonecrafting, stone-cutting, cooking, sewing, first aid, navigation, both by the stars and during the day, hunting, archery, fishing, and possibly some other things I’m not thinking of at the moment,” Duke told them, getting wide eyes from all of them. 

“You’re not all going to be expected to be experts at everything,” Audrey assured them, seeing how overwhelmed they were. “We all have our own talents, and you can explore those on your own later. But you at least have to know the basics of everything so that if you’re ever in a position to need it, you know how.” They all visibly relaxed at that. 

“Any other questions?” Dwight asked and was met with silence and just in time since Gloria stuck her head out the door to let them know that the food was all ready. 

They would be eating outside since lunch had been uncomfortably cramped, so Duke and Audrey headed inside to dish out the food while Dwight and McHugh sent the kids in ten at a time with their newly crafted plates. They each got one bat steak, a serving of boiled potatoes, and a spoonful of peas. After dinner it was getting late, so they started getting ready to send everyone home. That involved getting the barrels filled and everything else they needed to take. For now the adults and the twins got the barrels taken care of while the other kids pulled their clothes off the line and repacked their packs without the still dirty clothes that they were told to leave here for tomorrow and with their new plates that had been washed off already. 

“Are you sure you can spare all these barrels?” Dwight asked, looking at the three brining barrels with the rat and bats, the four freshwater barrels, and the three more empty barrels that they would use for saltwater for more brining and better cleaning. 

“We’re good for now,” Audrey assured him. “When the final harvests start coming in and we start putting food up for winter we’ll need some of them back, but by then there will have been plenty of lessons on barrel making so you’ll have a lot more.” They would also need a lot more with more mouths to feed. 

“We’ll also get you some eggs for breakfast. One egg feeds all four of us they’re that big, so ten should be plenty for tomorrow and we’ll show you where to collect them then,” Duke added. “Anything else you can think of?” he asked Audrey. 

“The stove top,” she reminded him. 

“Right. Of course,” Duke smacked himself in the head going over to the side of the house to grab a large flat piece of wood. “I didn’t have time to sand it down and it might still be a little big, but you’ll find a pile of sanding stones in the storage cave if you want to work on that part yourself. 

“And feel free to help yourself to anything else in there you need,” Audrey added. “And use either of the caves for your own storage too.” 

“Do you mind if we grab the couch from in there?” McHugh asked hopefully. It was all well and good for the kids to sit on the ground all the time but he and Dwight were no spring chickens anymore. 

“Not at all,” Duke assured them. “Be warned it’s pretty heavy though, but you don’t have that far to go.”

“We’ll have to worry about that tomorrow,” Dwight decided, noticing the sun was starting to set and he whistled for the kids who came running, packs already on their backs. “Okay we need to get all this stuff back so everyone who can start grabbing barrels. Double up if you need to.” Most of them did need to. He carried the large slab of wood for the stove since none of the kids were tall enough and McHugh took the wood egg carrier with the ten eggs, not trusting any of the kids not to drop them and break them. Dwight’s whistle had also brought the cats running and Audrey asked them to escort the group home since Dwight and McHugh had their hands too full to really focus on protection. 

Once they were gone, Duke took a knee in front of Nathan and Gloria and said, “Today, you two showed a lot of patience and compassion and your mom and I couldn’t be more proud of you.” He reached out and cupped both little faces and pressed a tender kiss to each forehead in turn. 

“I wholeheartedly second that,” Audrey said pulling them both into hugs and kissing the top of their heads. 

Both kids beamed happily. They knew their parents were always proud of them. They told them often enough. But the big speeches like that were few and far between and never ceased to make them feel good. That didn’t mean they weren’t going to push it though. “Does that mean we can have a snack?” Gloria asked hopefully. 

Duke laughed and ruffled her hair amusedly. “Come on. You two can have some fruit before bed.”

“Can we keep teaching the lessons?” Nathan asked as they sat at the table to eat. 

“Yeah, that was fun and I even remembered a lot of stuff I forgot during,” Gloria added. 

“Absolutely,” Audrey agreed, having been planning to ask just that. Them bringing it up themselves was even better though. 

The next morning they were just finishing up with their morning chores when the group arrived. The only thing they hadn’t done yet was collect the eggs which they were waiting for everyone else to do. The kids took them all around to do just that while Duke and Audrey collected all the seeds they would need for the day. There were only a few things that could be planted at the start of summer instead of early in spring, so they would have quite a bit of those things. 

Once they were back with the eggs, The men went to get their other three brining barrels filled from the ocean and Audrey oversaw all the kids pulling up the wheat in the sections of the field they were going to plant the other crops in. She watched as Nathan and Gloria taught them how to pull it up by the roots, harvest it, and then bundle the stalks for later use. By the time the guys got back, it was all clear and the kids were sent off with handfuls of fruit seeds to expand the orchard area while the adults started the tilling process. The tillers were a little heavy for most of the kids still, them not having worked up the same muscles as the twins and there were only four tillers anyway. One of their winter projects would be making a lot more. 

By the time the kids finished planting the trees, the first section of the field was ready for planting and after checking with the adults for what they wanted planted there, Nathan and Gloria started showing the kids how to do that. By the time they broke for lunch, they’d caught up with the adults preparing the land. They soon realized that feeding everyone fruits and raw vegetables for lunch was going to be unsustainable for long. They just didn’t have enough production to meet the demand until the new trees would be in next year. And they didn’t have time to cook enough meat to feed forty people with their normal sized kitchen. It would last for a few days though. Enough time to get the fields planted at least. Then the lessons could include foraging trips or even building a large outdoor fire pit to cook more meat. For the first time, Duke was considering actually going looking for a bear to take down.


	11. Chapter 11

They managed to get the fields planted over the next three days and then it was teaching them the daily management in the morning and they got the afternoon off for their first half day of rest. They spent a little of the time playing in the lake, both cleaning and swimming and the rest of the day playing/sparring with practice spears which ended up being a lesson it itself. It was one the kids were having fun with though so it didn’t really count. They easily settled into a routine, bringing the three fresh water barrels up every morning, refilling them and setting them at the edge of the fields to drink during the day when they got thirsty and then refilling them again before taking them back to the cave for the night. It didn’t take long for everyone to have the hang of the garden maintenance and the lessons in the afternoons were going well. 

The first thing they learned, since they had the basics of carving and sanding from making their plates, was making barrels. That day, the adults took the time to do some hunting. Duke always went along since he would be needed if they ran across a bear and someone had to teach Dwight and McHugh until the kids were ready to help. They didn’t like the idea of leaving the kids without adult supervision for long periods though. Even in the relatively safe clearing, which meant Audrey stayed behind. Not that she was idle. She used the time to bag a few ducks with her bow while the kids were doing the lessons. They didn’t brine well, which meant they usually only got one at a time when they were in the mood for duck, but it would take a few of them to feed the whole group and since Dwight and McHugh now had all their old oven boxes from storage, they would be able to cook them up for dinner. 

Once they finished the barrel making tutorial, it became a duck rendering tutorial with five kids per duck. Birds were a lot different even than bats after all. Bats were more similar to other animals in that particular area. Nathan and Gloria showed them how to set the feathers aside and get them ready for arrow fletching too, which would wait until another day to learn. It was nearly time for the sun to start setting by the time the others got back dragging three foxes and a rabbit behind them so there wasn’t time to render them down before they left. They decided to leave one of the foxes behind for Duke and Audrey and the kids, along with one of the six ducks they had. Everything else was coming with them, along with the finished buckets that were made that afternoon, which was about half of them. Since they were empty they could easily be carried one per kid, unlike the full water barrels which they still had to double up on. 

Duke and Audrey loaned them the wheelbarrow to load up the dead animals in, which was also going on the list to make more of, and the pile was almost too high to see over for the adults which meant one of them was pushing it. Not that any of the kids could have handled the weight anyway. The other adult carried the eggs for breakfast while the kids took everything else. Once they got back to the cave, while the ducks were cooking, the kids got to practice their new rendering skills on the foxes and rabbit which were put into the brining barrels and just in time since they had just run out of the bats and rat. 

The next day was spent making fishing poles, which was pretty quick and then learning to fish in the lake, though some of the kids already knew that much. At least earth fishing with rods and reels. They split up in halves with half of them finishing their barrels and then switching so they didn’t have too many lines in the water at once. They once again had to borrow the wheelbarrow to get all the cleaned fish home, a handful being left behind for the family. They were glad they were up to twenty brining barrels and were set for barrels and meat for a while, and all the kids had a fishing pole now. Dwight and McHugh were finally starting to realize that they could actually do this. Sure, there had been complaints about the hard work and even the gross work of rendering, but they had just been random mutters. These kids were too familiar with being helpless and starving to make much of a fuss. 

The next project was making a large outdoor firepit and stovetop in the clearing since they were running out of fruits and vegetables. Once again, Nathan and Gloria took the lead on the teaching while the adults worked on some more of the heavy work. Once that was done, they started splitting all the hunts half and half between the cave and the clearing since they were doing up meat for lunch too. Just steaks for a while until the new crops started producing and then vegetables were added. Fruits would be in short supply until next spring though and no one argued with the little that was left being for the family that had taken them in and was helping them survive though there was some grumbling about the horses getting their share from the open trees. They were quick to explain the way things worked with the intelligent creatures to the kids though. Once they knew that they owed the horses just as much, the grumbles stopped. 

The group had been there for about two weeks before they encountered a bear on a routine hunt. This time McHugh was back with the kids and Dwight and Audrey were with Duke. Dwight nearly shit a brick at the sight of it. The description of the size couldn’t have adequately prepared him for being faced with it. As much as it galled him to run and hide, he got that it was necessary. Duke’s focus couldn’t be split and he needed the bear focused solely on him too. They did find a hiding place where they could watch though and Dwight was more than a little impressed. Both with Duke’s practiced ease and his calm composure. He didn’t care how many of them Duke had taken down before, being faced with that without shitting yourself was still a feat to be admired. 

Once it was dead, they came out and Dwight was sent back to the clearing to get all the kids, McHugh, and the four wheelbarrows that were finished, that being part of what they had been working on while the kids were in lessons. It turned out to be five wheelbarrows since McHugh had finished the fifth one while they’d been hunting and all the kids trooped along with them, some of them nervous, some excited, but most both at the idea of seeing one of the legendary bears. Only a few of them screamed as they came up on the sight, Duke and Audrey already started on the skinning and everyone else jumped in to help. 

The ones that couldn’t fit around the bear took to organizing what was coming off of it, rolling up the hide, which they got all of this time instead of just the main portion, separating the ligaments so they wouldn’t get lost, and loading up the wheelbarrows with the meat to take back and forth, always accompanied by one of the adults. Nathan and Gloria could have gone alone, but the new kids weren’t quite hard enough to manage yet. At Audrey’s suggestion a handful of extra kids went along with the first meat trip to start cutting up the meat and getting it in to brine along with Dwight. A few more of the older kids, along with Nathan and Gloria, went with McHugh to the ocean to fill some more brining barrels and take the hide to clean it while the rest kept working on the bear and taking the meat. 

Once the brining barrels at the homestead were filled, the party moved to the cave to start filling the barrels there. It would be easier than lugging the full barrels back and forth of course. For the first time, the entire bear was harvested, despite not getting started until the early afternoon, and nothing was left for the rodents but scraps and marrow. The bones were still left until the next day so they could clean them better and given how late it was when they’d finished. Most of the kids were sent straight from the site back to the caves with McHugh while Dwight went back to the homestead with the two oldest to get their three freshwater barrels taken back, barely making it before dark. 

Duke, Audrey and the twins had time to wash up in the lake before going inside to exhaustedly start dinner. “At least we don’t have to pull an all-nighter to get the meat cut this time,” Duke said wearily as he put on simple stew, not up to too much work tonight. 

“That is a plus,” Audrey agreed as she and the kids got everything straightened up and put away from the hastily abandoned arrow-making lesson. All four of them munched on a piece of fruit as they waited for the stew to cook and were in bed not long after they ate. Even Duke and Audrey who usually stayed up a little later working on smaller projects or just spending time together and cuddling on the couch. Rendering a bear was hard work even with all the extra help.


	12. Chapter 12

Once everyone had a good assortment of arrows and better spears for the ones that weren’t quite right, the lessons started being split. Part of the afternoon would be spent on crafting where they were getting into working with bone and sinew, making needles, thread, and spare knives, and the rest of the afternoon was spent learning to use the bows and spears. All the new kids were working up muscles and endurance from all the hard work and seldom complained anymore no matter how tired they got. About the time that everyone had enough needles and thread to start the sewing lessons, some of the better ones were ready to take their first hunting trip. 

The six hunters split up, two each with Audrey, Duke, and McHugh as they headed out while the others were working on target practice. They took them to the same place they’d took their kids for their first hunt…and Dwight and McHugh for their first one, hunting rabbits and foxes. They split up the groups so that each one had someone who was better with the spear and someone who was better with the bow, and they’d heard enough stories about the normal tactic to easily put it into practice. There were a few minor injuries, mostly scratches and one pretty nasty bite when someone was too slow with the spear and had to be saved by Audrey, but they came back with four foxes and two rabbits, though they missed half of the sewing lesson and had to catch up after having the injuries treated.

Dwight and McHugh sat in on the sewing lessons too and everyone had a good portion of hide to work on their own clothes since the second-hand ones they’d been wearing were wearing a little thin since they’d only been able to get no more than two outfits each, only one for some of them. It took over two weeks before they all had a hang of the basics, though only about half of them were good enough to make good clothes and easily promised to make clothes for the rest when there was time. Duke told them that they usually worked on clothes mostly during the winter since there wasn’t a lot else to do and they agreed that it was a good idea. The lessons netted them enough to get them through until then. After that came working on storage cubbies so that everyone could have their own which they were more than glad about. All their stuff was currently just stacked around in the dirt throughout the cave. 

By the time the first main harvest came around, most of the kids had been on their first hunt and they were splitting days for hunting and crafting since the adults could only supervise so many at a time. They had decided that none of them would hunt alone until next year at the earliest. Even Nathan and Gloria hadn’t been hunting alone for long. The only ones who hadn’t been at all yet were the four year old twins and the three six year olds. It was decided that seven was a good age for a first hunt like Nathan and Gloria had done, so they would wait until then. That didn’t mean that they weren’t getting plenty of practice in their skills in the meantime though. 

The kids had also begun separating into groups of friends and Duke and Audrey were only a little bit surprised that Nathan and Gloria had separate groups of friends. The littler twins had attached to Gloria, liking her quieter nature, though they did love Nathan too. Nathan’s best friend ended up being Lizzie and the two were inseparable, though they did have other friends too and Gloria and her friends often joined them. Despite having different friends and interests, Gloria and Nathan were still as close as ever. Duke and Audrey were debating on when to tell them that the other kids weren’t immortal like they were, but it turned out they didn’t need to. A random conversation between the kids spilled the beans anyway as they learned when the adults were asked for clarification and confirmation. 

During the harvests, lessons were put on hold and afterwards turned towards the preservation of the food for the winter. Since there wasn’t enough room in their home cave for all the food they would need to store during that time, the second storage cave was used for the overflow. It was only about a five-minute walk so wouldn’t be too difficult during the cold winter. Especially since they would have to be out and about for firewood anyway. It was also balanced out by the fact that they weren’t lugging their freshwater barrels to and from the clearing every day and could just use the snow instead. 

Once winter set in, Duke, Audrey, and the twins went down to the cave three days a week, storms permitting, to work on lessons, now moving on to things like first aid and tool-making, both from bone and stone. They all agreed that stone was a pain to work with and only a few of them ever planned to do it again once they got the hang of the basics. The days that they didn’t have lessons were spent getting more comfortable and getting into their hobbies. They had everything they /needed/ by that point, but there was still a lot of leeway. The ones that enjoyed woodworking started making extra bowls, cups, and utensils for everyone and then extra barrels and storage cubbies. The ones that enjoyed making clothes got everyone outfitted nicely, including at least two bear-hide robes each since Duke took down another bear right before winter started and there was plenty to go around. The boneworkers stocked up on extra knives and bone tools while the few stoneworkers made axes, hammers, and chisels for everyone. 

Unfortunately, less work also meant more time for other things and about halfway through the winter, the family walked into the middle of an argument between the two oldest kids and Dwight when they came for lessons. Given the fact that there was a girl and a boy and the girl had just turned fifteen and the boy was fourteen, they could have guessed what it was about even before they heard Dwight’s comment of, “…and this isn’t like Earth where you can just go get a quickie abortion if you make a mistake.” 

Duke and Audrey shared a look before Duke jumped in and wrapped his arm around Dwight’s shoulders. “Come on buddy. Let’s go take a walk and collect some firewood.” McHugh was already out doing that so they joined him. 

Once the men were gone, Audrey took the couple aside, motioning for Nathan and Gloria to go ahead and get started with the other kids. “Okay, so I’m guessing by that display that you’re pregnant?” she asked the girl, getting a scared nod. “And you’re the father?” she asked the boy. Another scared nod. Audrey sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of her nose. They couldn’t have at least waited until everything was more settled and comfortable? But then they were teenagers and until birth control was invented they had always had babies this young. “Okay, so we need to start getting ready for a baby then.”

“Aren’t there some kind or herbs or something? I’ve seen it on tv,” Emily asked hopefully. It wasn’t that she really /wanted/ an abortion that badly. She was just so young and everything was still so up in the air and they weren’t even really settled yet living communally in a dirty cave. 

“Not that we know of,” Audrey told her, trying not to let her impatience show. “There may be or there may not be, but trying random herbs looking for one that will work would be way too dangerous, even if it happens to be one of the few that grow during the winter. And even if we did know what would work…like Dwight said, this isn’t Earth. There aren’t any doctors or medical care around. If you lose that baby, then there’s a better than fifty percent chance that you’ll die with it,” she said bluntly. She desperately needed to get that across before they even considered trying anything stupidly desperate and knew she succeeded when they both paled. “Like it or not, you’re having a baby.” 

“Okay, but…there’s no doctors or anything…who’s gonna deliver it?” Emily asked fearfully, Josh still being too freaked out for words of any kind. Or thoughts mostly. 

“Duke delivered our twins just fine, so unless McHugh or Dwight have some unknown skills I think he would be the best to do that,” she suggested. She would gladly assist, but he was the only one with any practical experience. She just hoped he wouldn’t mind being volunteered. “This isn’t the end of the world. We can manage. We always do.”

“M-maybe you should take him?” Emily asked with tears in her eyes. 

Audrey reached out and hugged her soothingly as she said, “Let’s not decide anything right now. There’s a lot of time still and even if we did adopt him or her, you would still have to nurse for the first year.” She knew that there was little to no chance of her giving the baby up once they formed that bond so she wasn’t really worried about it. She knew that Duke wouldn’t object to adopting the baby if it came to it, but she didn’t think it would. That settled, she turned to Josh who still looked more than a little petrified. “And I’m proud of you for standing here with her and taking responsibility. You’ll both be just fine and we’ll help however we can.”


	13. Chapter 13

“Yes, we will,” Duke said as he came up behind her, a much calmer Dwight and McHugh organizing the wood they’d just brought before going out for another load. “And I second what she said about being proud of you. It takes a real man to stand where you are, no matter how scared you are. And that’s perfectly normal too. Even I was terrified when Audrey got pregnant and I was more than twice your age.” 

Josh seemed to relax quite a bit at that and gave a relieved nod. The permission to be scared had helped a lot, along with the fact that two of the people he looked up to the most were proud of him, despite the fact that they were in this position in the first place. Both he and Emily were smart enough to know that wasn’t included in the pride. “What about when spring comes and all the work? She won’t be able to help much,” he asked. 

“She’ll still be able to help plenty. I was working in the field when my water broke,” Audrey assured them before looking at Emily for instructions. “You won’t be able to do any heavy lifting and you’ll probably need more breaks, especially for food and water, but you’ll still be able to help. Just learn to listen to your body and what it needs. When it says to rest, you rest and no one will fault you for it.” 

“Okay, I can do that,” Emily said relieved. She had been afraid that she would either have to sit out the work completely and have everyone resent her for it or she would be pushed to keep the same schedule since it was her fault she was in this position in the first place and end up hurting herself or the baby. This happy medium she could live with and was glad that Duke and Audrey at least would go to bat for her when she needed to rest. 

“It’ll really be okay?” Josh asked shakily. 

“Of course, it will,” Duke said clapping a bracing hand to his shoulder. “We’ll manage just like we always do.” He knew that he couldn’t really make that promise. That anything could happen. The confidence could only help in the long run though. Especially for Emily. The less she stressed the better. “Now why don’t you go join the lessons for now and we’ll worry about the rest later.” 

Since everyone was inside, they didn’t worry about leaving them unattended and all four of the adults went out for more firewood, but mostly so they could talk about this new development. “You really think it’ll be fine?” Dwight asked incredulously. 

“I think we don’t have much choice but to make it fine,” Audrey told him. “The milk is already spilled. There’s no going back.”

“So we just do what we can and hope for the best,” McHugh nodded in agreement. 

Dwight sighed. “If nothing else it’ll be a lesson to the rest of them, I guess.” 

“And we have plenty of experience with raising babies here that we can pass on,” Duke chimed in. “And it’ll be easier for them since there’s more people to help and…hopefully at least…only one baby.” 

“I still can’t imagine how you two managed twins along with everything else that has to be done every day alone,” McHugh shook his head in awe. 

“It wasn’t easy that’s for sure,” Audrey chuckled. “But if we can do it, they can do it.” 

“That’s true,” Dwight said, feeling a little better about the idea now. He still thought they were idiots, but that was beside the point. “Don’t suppose you’d be willing to share your birth control method to avoid any further incidents?” 

“Yeah, we don’t actually have one,” Duke shrugged helplessly. 

“You know I’m not exactly human right?” she asked them and they nodded. “Well my people are immortal and apparently evolved in such a way that to prevent too much population growth we can only conceive once every fifty years.” 

“Oh,” Dwight said simply, not sure what else to say to that. He could see where it would be both a good thing and a bad thing. It meant they didn’t have to worry about birth control, but if they did want more kids it wouldn’t be possible. “Which means we should probably get started on that village idea sooner rather than later.” 

“Yeah probably,” Audrey chuckled. 

“At least the bulk of the lessons will be done by the time winter is over which means that the afternoons can be spent working on that once we decide on a good place,” Duke told them. 

“I was thinking by that river near where we hunt the rabbits and foxes,” McHugh suggested. “As long as you don’t mind neighbors so close,” he added with a chuckle. It would still be about a half-hour walk in between. Just in the opposite direction. 

“That’s a good idea. We’d have the river for fresh water and it’s not too far from the opening to the ocean either. Plenty of game in the area. Pretty much the perfect spot,” Dwight easily agreed. 

“That works for us,” Audrey told them. “We could work on a big dormitory like house first to get the kids out of the cave and then as we get more housing in that could turn into like a town hall or gathering place.”

“It’ll still take probably close to a year, even with everyone helping, to get that first building in since we’ll have to teach as we go. The rest should be quicker though at least once they have the hang of it,” Duke pointed out. 

“Okay, then we’ll start on that once winter is over,” Dwight agreed. 

“Sounds good mayor,” McHugh said with a smirk. 

Dwight narrowed his eyes at him before getting his own back. “I’m glad you agree chief.” Duke and Audrey just laughed as they headed back into the cave with the firewood they’d been collecting as they chatted. 

The rest of the winter went smoothly, with Duke and Audrey taking the young couple aside to help them make a crib for the baby since the cribs for the twins were converted into their current beds and the bars burned for firewood long ago. When given the option they wanted to make their own cradle instead of use one of the twins’. They did gladly accept the clothes though. They wanted to get that out of the way before spring and they risked getting too busy. It was still left in the storage cave though, the cradle and clothes were all stacked and organized inside the crib to make it easy to move when the time came. 

The people who enjoyed sewing gladly took on a new project and worked with their old clothes to make diapers once they were told the trick with the sand and were given one of the old worn out diapers from the twins as a template. They ended up with far more diapers than were needed. More than twice as many as Duke and Audrey had with two babies, but the rest would get used eventually. Duke and Audrey advised them not to use more than four because otherwise it was too easy to just put them aside to worry about later when you were tired and then things could get really messy. 

Thankfully, that was the only pregnancy that winter, though given that the next youngest girl was only twelve, they weren’t really surprised. The bulk of the kids had been between eight and twelve when they came with only a few outside that range. Even with all the projects, lessons, hunting trips, and so on, everyone was still feeling pretty cooped up by the end of winter and were actually relieved to get back to work in the fields once spring came. During the first week the entire days were spent preparing the ground and getting the planting done and then they could start splitting up the days again. 

The last two weeks of winter were spent in theoretical lessons on building, including demonstrations with the pieces of a replica of their house, right down to the supports and grooves, that Duke and Audrey had made for the twins when they were little. The less they had to explain as they went the better. All the kids were more than a little excited about starting on their new village and were literally bouncing as they went to see the area and make the final plans. There had been a lot of talk between the adults on how they wanted to lay it out, particularly where to put the first building that they’d decided would be the center of the village where everything else would grow up around. To make things faster, they made finding a big enough spot without any large trees a priority. They could take down the trees and would be doing so in order to build it, but uprooting the stumps was a lot more difficult and time consuming.


	14. Chapter 14

During the housebuilding, Emily’s main job was cutting the divots. It didn’t require any heavy lifting and could even be done while sitting more often than not. That was also what the younger kids were set to doing too, though they did help with some of the lifting, unlike Emily. She wasn’t having an easy time of the pregnancy and often had to rest during part of the morning field work too. She was prone to fainting and wasn’t gaining as much weight as she should have. Her skin was pale and they suspected anemia. Duke and Audrey had started sharing some of the horse milk with her and they’d been keeping her eating greens and meat more often to keep her strength up, but the farther along the pregnancy got the more problems she had. She still insisted on helping to build their new home though, so they gave her jobs that she could do while sitting and resting, such as the divots, braiding and tying vines, and packing clay. 

Duke had worked out all the kinks of his ropes and lever system during the building of his house, and then his boat, so it ended up going quicker than he’d expected and by the beginning of fall they were starting on the roof, hoping to be able to be in by winter. The chimneys were complicated enough that the adults worked on that while the kids did the roof…with the adults checking their work of course. Nathan and Gloria had helped repair the roof at home often enough that they knew what they were doing though and helped to keep everyone else on track. They had decided to do the fireplaces much like the cave and have one large fireplace for cooking and then six smaller ones, three down each wall of the long dormitory building. 

Both the roof and fireplaces were half done when Emily went into labor. Everyone else had been working in the field while she was resting and whittling a small toy for the baby. Duke and Audrey rushed her inside, with Duke grabbing Josh’s arm and dragging him along. He and Emily weren’t actually together anymore, but he had still been making a minimal effort to help with the baby stuff at least, even if it had taken intervention more than once by Duke, Audrey, Dwight, and even McHugh telling him to man up and deal with it. Everyone else was told to keep working, though after the fields they would get the day off for building. 

Duke and Audrey had made sure to have some extra disposable blankets at the house along with Nathan’s old cradle just in case she’d been here when she went into labor and they came in handy. Audrey spread the blanket on the floor and she and Josh helped Emily lay down in the same place and position Audrey had given birth. While they were doing that, Duke was putting on a pot of water to boil cloths for cleaning up both Emily and the baby. All of the adults were more than a little worried about this pregnancy, but they had kept assuring everyone else, especially Emily, that everything would be fine. There was nothing more they could do than they were already doing and worrying and stressing her out would only make things worse. 

They weren’t sure if the problems were due to her age, the general conditions, or even just the fact that humans weren’t as resilient. More than once they’d all thought about the old infant mortality rates, and mother mortality rates of the old days on Earth before medicine became mainstream, but they kept those thoughts between them, usually only spoken of in hushed whispers when the children weren’t in earshot the rare times they were spoken of at all. Once she was all settled, Josh sat down next to her to hold her hand while Audrey assisted Duke. There was a lot of milling around and waiting, but unlike when Audrey was in labor and Duke didn’t need to be there until she was ready to push, none of them were going far this time. Between trying to keep Emily calm and make sure there weren’t any worse complications, not that they had any idea what to do if there were, it was a very tense time. And a very long labor. 

Dwight stuck his head in at one point and said, “It’s getting late. I need to get the other kids back to the cave. Do you want me to take yours with us for the night?” 

Duke and Audrey shared a look and nodded. “Yeah, if you would please Dwight? Thanks,” Audrey told him. 

“Anytime,” he assured them. “Do you need me or McHugh to stick around just in case you need anything?” 

“No, we should be good,” Duke told him. There wasn’t anything more an extra person could do that the four already there couldn’t do. Well three if they took Emily out of the equation. If things did go wrong an extra pair of hands wouldn’t be any help. 

Audrey remembered reading once that first time labor could take a very long time, and now had the first hand experience as she and Duke slept in shifts all night and Josh took more than a few naps, always being woken up within a couple hours to get back to his post. Emily managed to doze off a bit in between the contractions that were still coming over ten minutes apart. By the time the sun came up, her contractions were finally getting close together and it wasn’t long after McHugh stuck his head in to let them know they were back that she finally started to push. 

Audrey was mostly just handing Duke warm wet rags and being backup support for Emily as the head finally crowned and when the baby was fully out a few minutes later, Duke cursed and handed the baby girl to Audrey who grabbed the clamp and had Josh help cut the cord. The baby didn’t seem to be breathing so Audrey did CPR while Duke tried frantically to stop the massive bleeding that followed the baby out. Josh was in a complete panic so Duke kicked him out so they could focus. Emily was unconscious by that point anyway and fading fast. 

Josh had just bolted out the door when the baby gave her first cry and both Audrey and Duke gave relieved sighs. At least they managed to save one. Duke was still trying frantically to do everything he could, which wasn’t that much, but they both knew it was over. Audrey grabbed the last clean cloth and started to clean off the baby before putting a diaper on and wrapping it in a lynx hide blanket, tears streaming down her cheeks the whole time. By the time the baby was settled, Emily was gone, and Duke had given up and was sitting back on his knees with his eyes closed, trying not to let his own tears betray him. 

Audrey paced with the screaming baby trying to calm her at the same time as figure out how to feed her. They could give her horse milk. It wouldn’t be particularly healthy, but it would be something. They didn’t have any idea how to make a bottle though. With the kittens, Duke had just cut off the mother’s teats, but they weren’t about to go there with a human. They would just have to do their best with a wooden one. “Duke…” she said gently, reminding him that there were things to do still. 

“Right,” he sighed wearily as he dragged himself to his feet. “We can get one of the kids working on something for a bottle and Nathan or Gloria have probably already milked the horse by now…”

“We need to let everyone know…” 

“I know,” Duke sighed as he went over to clean his hands arms and face in the wash basin, but his clothes were still soaked with blood. “We need to get Josh too.” 

They both stepped outside to find everyone hard at work in the field, but when the door opened, everyone rushed over. Josh was just sitting against the side of the house with his head in his arms. Duke put a hand on his shoulder and Josh scrambled to his feet. “Emily? The baby?” he asked frantically. 

“The baby is okay. It’s a girl. Emily didn’t make it,” Duke said regretfully, announcing it both to him and the rest of the group who were keeping a respectable distance but still within earshot. 

When Audrey went to hand him the baby, Josh shook his head and stepped away. “No. I can’t. No.” 

Duke’s face turned cold and he grabbed Josh’s arm, dragging him around the side of the porch for privacy while Audrey just sighed and turned her attention to the more immediate problems. “Gloria, you’re the fastest at carving. Can you make me something like this?” she asked, leaning down and drawing a shape in the dirt, since she had never seen anything resembling a bottle. “It needs to be hollow and this part here needs to be able to screw off and on with just a needle sized hole in this tip here.”

“Okay,” she nodded through her tears and ran off to grab a piece of wood for it. 

“Nathan, did you already milk Bessie?” Audrey asked him and he nodded, tears streaming down his face as he hugged Lizzie who was sobbing on his shoulder. Most of the kids were in various stages of tears and Lizzie wasn’t the only one in full sobs. The baby had mostly calmed by now and wasn’t screaming anymore but she was still fussing. It wouldn’t be long before she got too hungry and started the screaming again though. 

Since there wasn’t anything anyone else could do right now, Dwight knew that standing around moping would only make things worse so he stepped in. “Come on kids. Let’s get back to work for now.” Giving them a job was the best thing he could do right now. He didn’t look forward to the nightmares that were sure to come tonight though. She had been the first one they’d lost since they found ‘salvation’ with the Crockers.


	15. Chapter 15

Duke dragged Josh around the corner, out of earshot of the rest of the kids before he hissed, “That is your daughter over there and you won’t even hold her?”

“I can’t…I can’t take care of a baby. Just…you should keep her. You and Audrey. You can take care of her,” Josh stammered. 

“So you’re going to abandon your daughter?” Duke asked coldly. “Just like that. You don’t care?” 

“I-I never wanted a baby in the first place. I don’t…I can’t take care of her…I just…” 

Now, Duke had never considered himself to have a temper. If anything, he was the one who always kept his cool in any situation. He didn’t rise to other people’s tempers and could count on one hand the number of times he’d ever hit anyone that didn’t attack him first. He had never been as close to losing his temper as he was right now though. “I won’t lie to her,” Duke snapped. “When she gets older and asks about her biological dad, I’ll tell her exactly who you are. That you were a coward that ran away the second things got tough. She will /hate/ you. Is that what you want?” 

Josh closed his eyes and hung his head, not able to actually answer that question. All he could say was, “I can’t…”

Duke grabbed his shoulder and shoved him away, only not punching him because he was still too close to a kid. “Fine…get out of my sight…you have a week to get your head on straight and change your mind, but then she’s mine.” 

Josh scampered off, returning to the field and doing his best to stay out of Duke’s sight as requested, wiping the tears from his cheeks. Duke headed back to Audrey as the rest of the kids were headed back to the field too and wrapped his arms around her and the baby, pressing his lips to her head and just breathing her in. “Do I want to know?” she asked worriedly, leaning against him. 

“I gave him a week to change his mind before he’s not getting her back,” Duke whispered tightly, letting her presence soothe him in the way nothing else could. 

“Good. A week is plenty of time. If he hasn’t changed his mind by then, he’s not going to,” Audrey nodded. It would be hard enough to give her up after a week anyway. 

Dwight noticed Josh heading back to the fields instead of being with his baby, so he headed back over to Duke and Audrey. “What’s with Josh?”

“He doesn’t want the baby. Duke and I will keep her unless he changes his mind in the next week,” Audrey told him. 

“Fair enough. I’ll see if I can knock some sense into him later,” Dwight offered. “We should take care of Emily…”

“I know. I just want to get the baby fed first,” Audrey told him. 

“McHugh and I will go ahead and start digging then. Any particular place?” 

“Wherever you think is best,” Duke told him, turning and going into the house without another word. He could at least try and clean Emily up and get her ready to be buried. 

Audrey continued pacing and bouncing the now screaming baby just as Gloria came running back up with the two pieces of the bottle that would screw together. “Put a little bit of the milk in that and screw the top on for me?” Audrey asked her and had it in hand a second later and Gloria was running back for the fields. It took a few tries for both her and the baby to figure out how to work it without choking, but they finally managed to get it figured out. The bottle leaked a bit, not having the tightest of seals, but for a rush job it was good enough. They would get a few more bottles made later and more carefully. Maybe even find a way to improve it. At least the baby was getting fed now though. 

The horses came over curiously to see the new baby. They’d gotten more comfortable with the rest of the people, but they were still only close with the family. They had gone out of their way to keep an eye on Emily during her pregnancy as they always would someone in that state, but they still kept their distance for the most part. This baby was being cared for by family though, which made it more of a curiosity. “Her mother died,” Audrey told the horses. “She’ll be staying with us for a while. Maybe forever.” 

The horses hung their heads out of respect for the dead before taking turns sniffing the eating baby, recognizing her as family now too. They were well familiar with adopting orphans. It happened occasionally in the herd too and it only made them more respected that they were willing to do so as well. To the horses that was a mark of true civilization. To care for another’s offspring as your own. It was why they had been willing to give up milk once they began to recognize them as family. If they needed it then they would care for them. 

Audrey had to watch closer with the milk steadily trickling from the bottle to know when the baby was done, and it wasn’t long after the horses wandered back off when she stopped swallowing, so Audrey lifted her up to burp her and it wasn’t long before she was asleep. Audrey took her back inside, changed the wet blanket that had milk dripped all over it, and wrapped her in a new one before laying her in the cradle. 

Duke had just finished cleaning Emily up when Audrey came back in and while she was wrapping the baby in a new blanket, he was doing the same for Emily in a much graver manner. When he picked her up gently and went to carry her outside, Audrey followed him out and called for Nathan since he was closer and Gloria had already made the bottle. “Will you sit with the baby for a little bit while we bury Emily? She’s sleeping and shouldn’t wake up, but if she does, just come and get me.” 

“Okay,” Nathan nodded sadly. “I picked this up…can I give it to her?” He pulled the half-carved cat from his pocket that Emily had been working on when she went into labor. 

“Not right now, sweetheart. I’ll want to check it later and make sure it doesn’t have any sharp edges or splinters, but once it’s safe, yeah. We’ll give it to her,” Audrey assured him, running a soothing hand through his hair as he headed inside. 

She walked over to the hold that McHugh and Dwight had dug as Duke laid Emily’s body wrapped in the nice blanket, along with the other bloody blanket, gently into the hole and the four of them together worked to fill it up. By the time they were heading back to the house, it was almost time to start lunch and Duke and Audrey went to change out of their bloody clothes while Dwight and McHugh threw a few dozen steaks onto the large outdoor stovetop. 

When Duke and Audrey walked into the house, Nathan waited for them to finish changing before presenting them with the toy. “I sanded off the rough edges and stuff, but I didn’t think it would be right to finish it.” 

“That’s a good call bud,” Duke ruffled his hair as he took it to inspect it. “It looks good.” 

Nathan went over and put it gently into the cradle on top of the sleeping baby as a few more tears leaked from his eyes. “What’s her name?” he asked. 

Duke and Audrey looked at each other and had a silent conversation for a moment before Duke suggested, “Emelia?” 

“Perfect,” Audrey smiled sadly before telling Nathan, “Why don’t you head outside for lunch. It should be ready soon.”

After lunch, Audrey started fiddling with the bottle and decided to try a thin piece of cloth over the nipple hole. First she had to clean and sterilize all the bloody cloths since they’d all been used. She rinsed them well in the wash water that would have to be emptied soon before starting them boiling. While she was working on that, Duke was taking a large piece of wood to make a grave marker. He wanted it big enough for all the kids to carve messages into if they wanted to. It didn’t take long to make before he carved her name, Emily Porter, into it. 

Once the cloths were sterilized, Audrey took them all out to hang up on the inside line since they were small enough to dry fast and it was closer, but she took one of the larger pieces to start wiping up the residual blood that had leaked off the blanket and dripped from the piled cloths. She had to rinse it a few times before the floor was clean and then she tossed it back into the still boiling water. She took one of the smaller strips to fit it through the nipple, trying to keep it from overlapping, and hung enough over the edge to hopefully keep it in place and tighten the seal. About that time, Emelia was waking up hungry again, so she gave it a try and was glad that it worked much better. Almost like a normal bottle and there was much less spillage. 

Duke was putting the grave marker up by the time Audrey had changed the baby and brought her outside and the kids were all starting to gather around it. Dwight was the one to run things and waited until Audrey and the baby got there before he made a short, heartfelt speech about Emily, her compassion and perseverance and willingness to help anyone who needed it. Duke had his arms wrapped around Audrey who had silent tears streaking down her face and the baby who would never meet her mother. Nathan had his sister crying on one shoulder and Lizzie crying on the other. There were a lot of other kids in similar states, including the youngest set of twins who were hugging each other and sobbing. 

Once everyone who wanted to speak had done so, the kids started gathering around the grave marker to carve their messages for the ‘big sister’ of the group. Even the horses circled around the outside to pay their respects, having figured out what was going on, despite how strange they found this particular death ritual.


	16. Chapter 16

The rest of the day was spent sitting around and talking about Emily and meeting Emelia. Josh stayed at the back of the group though, perfectly aware of Duke’s frequent glares as well as the disappointed looks from Dwight and McHugh. He never did end up changing his mind though. Even after a long conversation with Dwight. He had been willing to help Emily raise it, but didn’t even want to consider doing it himself. Especially since she would be well taken care of anyway. Better than he ever could. 

While they were sitting around talking, Duke leaned over for a quick kiss from Audrey before whispering, “I’m gonna go down to the caves and get the rest of the baby stuff.” 

“Do you want some company?” she asked him in the same whisper. 

“No. I really just need some time to clear my head, you know?” 

“I understand,” Audrey nodded sadly, reaching up with her free hand to brush down his cheek. “Be safe.”

“Always am,” he gave her his standard response and squeezed her hand before he got up to walk off, taking a minute to secure his weapons and grab the wheelbarrow first. No one else even noticed him leave, too lost in their reminiscences. 

Duke took his time walking down to the caves, knowing that he had at least three hours before the sun would start to set as he tried to settle everything in his mind. The loss of a girl he’d gotten quite close with was the easiest of those things to settle. He’d lost enough people in the past that it was almost routine by now. Harder to handle was the old scars from his childhood that Josh’s abandonment of his daughter were dragging up. Hardest of all was trying to figure out how to deal with the baby for the next week. If he knew for sure that they would be keeping her and that she would be his daughter then it would be easy, but how to see her until that was fully decided was a lot harder. On one hand, he didn’t want to get too attached and then have to give her away, but on the other would it really be fair to her to keep her at arms length either?

He got to the cave and started pulling everything out of the crib to set into the wheelbarrow, planning to use the cradle Emily made for her instead of the one she was using temporarily. He left behind all but two more diapers since they already had two at home, and loaded everything else up before taking the bars off the crib and laying them across the top and then turned the rest legs up on top of that and headed for home. By the time he got home he’d decided to just treat Emelia as his daughter for now and handle the pain of giving her up if it became necessary. He gave Audrey a small smile as he wheeled everything into the house and started putting the crib back together. He put it next to the twin’s beds and then looked at them appraisingly, considering the idea of bunk beds. He would suggest it to them later. 

He put Nathan’s old cradle underneath the crib for now and got all the clothes put away and the baby slings hung up on a hook before he went back outside and slid back into place next to Audrey, holding out his arms for the baby. When she started crying again for food, Audrey went inside to get a bottle ready and Duke smiled as he realized that at least he could feed this one and didn’t hesitate to do so when she got back. 

When the cats got back from hunting, they were surprised to find a new baby in the family but took it in stride. Unlike the horses, they liked everybody. Duke and Audrey were glad that they’d taken to sleeping outside now. They liked being able to move between the caves and home to check on the expanded family. They’d already been getting tight on space with the two giant cats inside, but now with an extra baby it would be even worse. 

Once everyone else had left for the night and they all headed inside to start dinner, Gloria asked, “Is she our sister now?” 

“Probably,” Audrey told her. “Her father might decide to take her, but not likely.” 

“Well if he doesn’t want her, we’ll take good care of her,” Nathan said firmly, clearly offended by the fact that Josh wouldn’t want his baby. 

“Damn straight we will,” Duke said proudly as he relinquished her to Audrey so he could work on dinner. 

“Can I hold her?” Gloria asked hopefully and Audrey nodded, placing her gently in Gloria’s arms, showing her how to hold the baby. 

Gloria rocked her for a little while and cooed at her before Nathan said impatiently, “Okay, my turn now.” 

Audrey chuckled as she assisted with the transfer, correcting his grip and Nathan cooed at her just as much as his sister did. “Reminds you of his namesake doesn’t he,” Duke said amusedly. 

“Uncle Nathan liked babies?” Gloria asked, as Nathan looked curiously at them for the answer too. 

“He was a nut for babies,” Audrey said nostalgically, telling a few stories, exaggerated for comic effect, of everything else getting shoved aside every time he saw a baby. Duke chimed in with a few himself from the kitchen area. 

When Emelia started to cry, Nathan jumped, but didn’t even come close to dropping her. Just the opposite in fact as his grip tightened and his eyes went wide. “Give her here. She’s just hungry,” Audrey laughed. 

“I got her,” Duke jumped in. “It’s simmering now.” 

Having heard Duke’s grumbles when the twins were babies about not being able to help feed them, Audrey completely got why he wanted to do so as much as possible now and teased, “Looks like he got the gene from his father too.” 

“Hey, I’m only like that with my own babies,” Duke said mock-defensively as he plucked the baby out of Nathan’s arms and started feeding her. By the time she was finished, so was dinner, and the baby was set in her cradle while they ate. 

After dinner the twins got ready for bed and they both kissed the baby’s head with a, “Night ‘Melia,” on their way. 

The next morning, Duke was wearing the baby in the sling as they hit the fields, switching to Audrey halfway through the morning. The twins got their turn with their own slings in the afternoon while they worked on the new dormitory. They switched back and forth and whichever one was wearing the baby was directing the work on the roof while the adults did the heavy stonework of the fireplaces. 

That evening when they got home, they got a big surprise when Sheba and Hercules came back and Sheba dropped a baby lynx on Duke’s lap while Audrey was cuddling the baby. Nathan and Gloria started giggling at the dumbfounded looks on the adults faces as they just blinked at the mewling kitten for a long moment and then looked up at the pleased looking grown cats. “Please tell me it’s mother isn’t going to come looking for it and kill us all?” Duke asked wearily, not expecting an answer and not getting one either. 

“It’s too late now either way, so we’ll just have to hope for the best,” Audrey sighed. It wouldn’t be the first time the lynxes had taken down one of their own kind, but it was the first kitten they’d brought. Apparently they remembered growing up with Nathan and Gloria and thought the new baby needed a kitten to grow up with too. 

“At least we have bottles now,” Duke snorted amusedly as he went to get a second one. “Unless you have something to tell us?” he looked at Sheba. He could tell by looking at her that she wasn’t nursing though and was mostly joking. He wasn’t sure if the lynxes intended to raise it or leave it to them, but when they tried to take the baby back out to them after it ate, Hercules nudged it back, so they guessed that they were the parents. It would be the best way to get the new kitten used to the baby anyway. Just like the last time they used the crib as a pen at night until it could be trusted around the baby. 

Since they had to spend so much time away from home these days, they took the kitten with them in a second baby sling and brought enough milk to feed both the baby and the kitten while they worked on the new dormitory. They just barely got it all up and running in time before the first snow fell and the next few days were spent trooping all their stuff out to it before it got any worse. It was helped by the fact that all their food stockpiles for the winter had been stacked at Duke and Audrey’s house for the time being in the hopes that they would be able to move in by then. 

It took two days to get everything from the cave to the dormitory. They all had two storage cubbies each by that point, which meant two trips and the stuff in them went to their still barely holding together packs that they’d come to this world with. Since the fields weren’t being worked anymore, they were able to make four trips the first day with the second two trips being the giant bear hides and as many of the barrels as they could get. The second day was the rest of the barrels. Like Duke and Audrey had, Dwight and McHugh had decided to leave the couch and just make a new one. It was way too heavy to lug on an hour trip through the wilderness. Day three was spent getting all the barrels of stored food for the winter from the homestead. There were a lot more of them, but it was also half the distance, so it was easier. Duke and Audrey were glad to have the space to move in their house again once they were all gone, and they just had their own supplies to contend with.


	17. Chapter 17

That winter, there weren’t any more lessons, which was a good thing since they didn’t really want to take an infant traipsing through the snow on a regular basis. The kids did quite a bit of going back and forth and Duke and Audrey often had a houseful of their kids’ friends. That was limited to a couple days a week though since the rest of the time they were all working on projects. The dormitory folks first project was for everyone to make their own real raised bed. Dwight and McHugh in particular were more than glad to have those and then the large bear hides and moss that they’d been sleeping on were cut into sections to cover everyone’s bed. They already had their own blankets of various weights so they didn’t have to worry about that. The beds were lined up along the walls, boys on one side and girls on the other and it was looking like a real dormitory now. Since there were two different sections of fireplaces for heat they were even able to put up curtains between them, each group having their own fireplace. 

They’d built with plenty of space for storage and workspaces, so the other four fireplaces usually only ran during the day when everyone was out and about and the big one at the back was only for cooking. The firewood was all stacked outside the doors, one on each side of the long building, and only a small amount inside each night so they wouldn’t have to go out after dark and brave the rats. They’d had a few bites over the last year which were promptly treated when they didn’t quite make it home in time and none of them wanted to tangle with the creatures when they didn’t have to, though they had gotten pretty good at killing them. 

They worked out a rotation where every three days three pairs of hunters would go out and they partnered the younger kids with the older ones except the three seven year olds. The three of them went together with either Dwight or McHugh who took turns going with them when they were up in the rotation. Among the other projects worked on over the winter were a dozen couches and trunks for each of the kids to put their clothes in, freeing up more space in their cubbies. Part of the goal was to make them more comfortable there, but also to be able to furnish houses as they were built and the kids got old enough to move into them. 

After some discussion that age was set at thirteen. The kids threw the argument back at Dwight and McHugh that they weren’t on Earth anymore and things were different here. It was bolstered by the argument that in many cultures thirteen was considered an adult. It was agreed to with the provision that they still check in daily for the first year. They had to admit that the situation was maturing the kids far faster, so it wasn’t completely unreasonable, and they would still be close by anyway. That said, they weren’t planning on turning anyone out at that age, houses available or not. If they wanted to stay longer they were welcome to. 

Duke and Audrey’s family had the same idea and their winter projects also included making furniture for the town, mostly focusing on the lighter stuff that would be easier to move like kitchen tables and chairs and coffee tables. They also worked on making more cookware. Stew pots, smaller pots, cooking racks, and oven boxes. All that was taken down to the storage caves as it finished and they were using the recently vacated big cave for all the stuff that would be going to the town, not seeing the need to waste a perfectly good door and there wouldn’t be room for it all in the smaller caves anyway. 

Little Emelia was growing like a weed and by the end of winter she was rolling over on her own. The twins took to her like ducks to water and Duke and Audrey almost had to fight to get their own time with her during the day and mostly just contented themselves with the nighttime after the twins were in bed. They were glad that the kids loved their little sister so much though and they did still have the days that they went to play with their friends. 

Once spring came it was back to the normal routine with one change. The group didn’t have to bring their water barrels with them anymore since they were right on the river and could fill them there. It did make them a little later arriving in the mornings for work though, but that was understandable. Once the fields were prepared and planted, they got back to the split days and started working on building houses, using the size of Duke and Audrey’s as a template. Since they were much smaller than the huge dormitory, they worked on two at a time, splitting up into teams and whoever was wearing the baby at any given time was supervising and pretty much everyone took a turn at some point. Even Josh, much to Duke’s irritation. Audrey wasn’t particularly happy about it either, but letting the other kids be included and cutting him out would have been cruel. 

Josh did enjoy getting to spend time with his daughter, not that she was his in anything but genes. He didn’t regret his decision though. He wasn’t equipped to raise a baby and she had a great life with Duke and Audrey. He did learn eventually why it had pissed Duke off so much though. Nathan told him about how Duke’s mom abandoned him after his dad died and how he had to raise himself alone without any help. That gave him the insight he needed to approach Duke for a truce and for them to sit down and have a real talk where he explained his position. 

When he told Duke that if she hadn’t had the option for someone else willing and able to take better care of her then he would have taken care of her himself, Duke grudgingly accepted the fact. He still disagreed and made it known that he disagreed but was willing to let bygones be bygones. Once it was made clear that it didn’t change the fact that Josh had relinquished any right to consider himself her father, of course. She was Duke and Audrey’s now. They would tell her about her mother as she grew up but would only mention her father when and if she asked and then it would be her choice what kind of relationship she had with him. Josh had no problems with that and then things were back to normal. Duke still didn’t like the kid and probably never would, but hostilities had ceased at least. 

By the time winter rolled around again they had four houses built and Josh was the first to move out along with two of the other oldest boys and the fourth house was left vacant for the time being. They each took their beds, cubby tables, trunks, one couch, and one barrel for water from the dormitories. They would still have to go there for food until they made themselves some more barrels, which they spent some time over the winter doing. Along with working on their floors. By the time winter was over their floors were all set and they had a good selection of barrels that they kept well stocked. 

The next year Emelia was toddling around so she was kept away from the construction sites and someone always spent the afternoons with her at the homestead while everyone else went to work. Usually, it was one of the immediate family but occasionally someone else would be allowed to take a turn. In addition to the four houses that year they also built a foot bridge across the river, making good use of the canoes that they had started making in their spare time and keeping the river from sweeping them away by stakes in the ground on either side of the river and ropes holding them in place. They had decided that they wanted the village to straddle the river so that people didn’t have to go so far for water. 

They knew the kids would be pairing off at some point, and they’d already started for the most part so they were only planning to build twenty five houses for now. It would likely be more than they needed, but that would give a little growing room or when couples split up and such. The year after that they could have gotten more houses but stuck with four for the time being so that they could also work on getting fields closer to home. The first step of that involved digging up all the large stumps from the trees they’d cut down for houses. There was always a rotating group that worked on that while the rest worked on the houses. They wouldn’t be planting until the following year though.


	18. Chapter 18

Emelia was three when the next pregnancy came about. They had learned from the lesson of Emily though. This time was between a committed couple that had their own home at least and while there were some complications, both mother and baby survived, and they took Audrey and Duke’s method of carrying the baby in a sling while they worked. 

They day they found out that Nathan and Lizzie were dating…and had been for quite a while, Dwight had turned up on Duke and Audrey’s doorstep. Since it was winter it required a walk to get there rather than already being in the same place working. “You…your son…my daughter…they…” Dwight was beyond words. 

Duke just burst out laughing and shook his head inviting Dwight in and grabbing him some water. Nathan and Gloria were in the village hanging out today so it was just Duke, Audrey and Emilia at home. “You have got to be the only person on this planet who’s surprised about that particular match,” Duke told him as Audrey got Emilia bundled up to go play in the snow and give the guys their time to work this out. 

“I swear if he gets her pregnant…”

“Hey…buddy…chill a sec and think,” Duke said amusedly. “This is Nathan we’re talking about. He’s a good responsible kid. If he gets her pregnant he will be by her side every step of the way. They’re fifteen now. That’s about the average age in this world to having kids and he helped raise Emelia so he’s probably more prepared than any of the rest of the boys.”

“Still…she’s my daughter,” Dwight said, hating that he was unable to actually argue any of those points. 

“That doesn’t make it any of your business,” Duke told him. “Any more than it’s any of mine. How they chose to live their lives is on them. All we can do is support them the best we can. If I were you I’d consider myself lucky that it’s Nathan she picked. It could be a lot worse.” 

“That’s true,” Dwight grumbled. “But that doesn’t mean I want to be stuck being in-laws with you.” They were the kind of friends that pretended to hate each other despite caring deeply about each other. And Dwight still found Duke annoying as hell half the time. 

“I don’t see why you’re complaining. I have to be in-laws with /you/,” Duke joked back.

Dwight snorted amusedly and moved on, deciding to put Duke in the same position he was in. “You know Gloria’s been running around with Chad right?” 

“Oh I know,” Duke nodded with a grimace. “They don’t know I know, but I know. Gotta get up earlier in the morning to get one over on me.”

“You don’t like him,” Dwight figured. 

“Not really, no. He’s always been a pain,” Duke huffed. 

“I can’t really argue with you there,” Dwight admitted. “But you haven’t said anything?”

“Nope. Like I said, not my business. It’s her mistake to make. All I can do is be here to pick up the pieces when it falls apart. Or you never know. She may end up making a decent man out of him,” he shrugged. 

“That’s a very laid-back view,” Dwight said, not sure why he was surprised. Duke had always been the most laid-back guy he knew and he wasn’t exactly wrong about anything he’d said. “I guess I do have it pretty easy. You’re right about Nate. He’s one of the good ones.” 

“So is Lizzie. From when you all first got here she’s always been the first one to jump in to help no matter what needed to be done. Always willing to learn and quick to pick up on things. I wholeheartedly approve of Nate’s choice,” Duke told him. 

Dwight beamed at the praise of his daughter and gave Duke a grateful nod. “I appreciate that.” 

“Just the truth,” Duke said matter-of-factly. “You staying for lunch?” he asked as he got up from the table. 

“Sure, why not,” he shrugged. The few kids left in the dormitories were old enough to take care of their own meals and McHugh was still around if they needed help so he didn’t need to go back for it. 

That spring, five years after they’d arrived, they finally had the fields planted near their home, though they put in the extra work to keep both going that first year just in case the new one flopped. That year saw another baby being carried around in a sling and Josh was the father of this one, feeling like he was in a much better place to raise a baby now. 

Emilia had started helping in the village that year since she was four now, mostly in the fields while groups of people worked on the houses. Despite having gotten much better and faster, they still only got four done that year due to the extra time working two fields. Nathan and Gloria were both discussing moving in with their significant others but had decided to wait until the end of fall after the harvest was done. That way they could spent the winter getting their new home furnished, outfitted, and the flooring put in. 

The fact that they were already getting ready to move in together was the only thing that kept Dwight from going through the roof when Lizzie ended up pregnant in the fall and Nathan was quick to assure him that he had every intention of taking good care of his child and any future ones they may have. They did still keep to their planned schedule though and wait until the last harvest was in and preserved before making the move for the simple reason that there was too much work to do to take the time off for it which Dwight accepted. 

Nathan and Lizzie and Gloria and Chad both started off better than most people did thanks to Duke and Audrey who gave them plenty of barrels. Since it was down to just the two of them and Emelia now, they didn’t need as much and had already been sending a lot of their excess food to the village. Nathan and Gloria also had a lot more furniture and other belongings of their own to move in with. That ended up being a good thing since Gloria ended up joining Lizzie in pregnancy not long after. That winter actually saw a bit of a baby boom since things were going better now and the village was taking shape. 

Hercules and Sheba had moved with Nathan and Gloria too, though they checked in on the rest of the family in the clearing often too, including Emelia’s lynx Mira. It would be quite a while before Duke and Audrey realized that the ability to use the Aether had passed to their children who had gotten into the Aether core during their childhood and figured out a way to give Hercules and Sheba immortality too. Thankfully not in the same kind of link that Duke and Audrey had done because that would have been awkward, but whatever method they used worked, but had used up the Aether core. They hadn’t noticed because they hadn’t even thought about it in so long. 

Since the village fields had done well the first year, Duke and Audrey reduced theirs back to it’s original size, much to the horses relief who were glad to see that they hadn’t misplaced their trust in them. It would stand them in good stead in a few years when they got to other projects that took more outside space. With Nathan and Gloria gone, the house almost felt empty and they were glad that Emelia had come into their lives otherwise they’d be having a bad case of empty nest syndrome. It was still a long winter though despite the fact that their kids and spouses were frequent visitors. 

Duke would end up delivering both of his grandchildren, with the assistance of one of the village girls named Julia. She realized that it wouldn’t always be convenient to take the trip to the clearing to get Duke and Audrey so it might be best to have a midwife of sorts on hand. They’d been lucky so far in that Duke had already been nearby for all of the other four babies that had been born to that point, but they couldn’t count on always being that lucky. By the end of summer, Duke and Audrey had two grandsons and the last of the houses they had planned for the town were under construction, though they wouldn’t be used for quite a while. Since the only kids left in the dorms now were the eleven year old twins, Dwight moved into one of the houses with them while McHugh took another house for himself. 

Now that the bulk of the work was done and they just had the fields, hunting, and fishing to contend with, there was more time for fun projects. Duke never did get around to building his forge since someone else beat him to it, along with glassmaking, pottery, and even someone taking on musical instruments. Duke was quick to grab something similar to his ukulele when it was available and even got a little flute for Emelia. Audrey swore she had a tin ear, but loved hearing the music her husband and daughter made. 

Since they actually had time now, they started spending more time on the boat that Duke had greatly missed. It required quite a bit of maintenance since it had been sitting untouched most of a decade, and he also had a way to add in a kitchen now that there was someone in the village making bricks so he could fireproof an area without using heavier stones. He, Audrey, and Emelia took a few one week trips the following summer once it was ready, Nathan, Gloria, and their families easily agreeing to take the little bit of time it would take to keep their garden up while they were gone. 

They didn’t realize until there was an incident during one of their trips where Nathan had come across a bear that he’d inherited the phasing trouble rather than the trouble killing one, probably because that had been the only one Duke had access to and used often when they were conceived. At least it had helped him kill the bear and ended up saving the village. 

While Gloria, like Audrey, was limited to one child every fifty years, Nathan didn’t have the same restriction and ended up with five kids which was about average for the village given the non-existence of birth control. Finally someone managed to figure out a plant that helped prevent conception but wouldn’t harm current pregnancies and the birth rate slowed. Emelia ended up moving in with her boyfriend at seventeen since her boyfriend was only fourteen and then Duke and Audrey really did have an empty nest. They enjoyed the peace and quiet though. They weren’t alone in the clearing forever though. About the time their next child came along, Nathan and Gloria asked the horses if they could build homes in the clearing too. Lizzie and Chad had both died of old age, the lack of real medical care lowering the life expectancy, and rather than stay in the busy village, they wanted to come back home. Since they were family, the horses easily agreed as long as they didn’t build on the lake. They built homes side by side in the place that the horses had indicated so long ago.


End file.
